Kyle Gober was shocked she was sent home on the most recent episode of “America’s Next Top Model,” but the eliminated contestant admits she was just as taken aback by the recent news that Jay Manuel, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker will be leaving the show.

“It’s sad because they were so awesome. Miss J comforted me so much when I was trying to go home (on a previous) episode, he was hugging me and comforting me a lot. He was so sweet. And Mr. Jay, obviously, is just a great art director for the show and Nigel, having the honour to work with him was so great, so it’s upsetting to see them go,” Kyle tells CTV.ca over the phone.

The 20-year-old from Magnolia, Texas, says she didn’t hear any rumblings about the shakeup during her time on the reality series but heard the news, along with everyone else last Friday, that the contracts of the long-time cast members had not been renewed.

Read more about their exit from 'ANTM' here

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen (now). I’m looking forward to seeing who is going to be the new judges and who they’re going to replace them with.”

For Kyle, her time ended on Cycle 18 of “ANTM” because the judges felt she was showing the same look over and over in her photos. But Kyle believes she was eliminated for a different reason – her poor performance in a music video the previous week.

“I didn’t do good in the music video and of course, the winner gets a single, and I’m not good at dancing or singing so I think that was the main reason,” she says.

“On the photo shoot I got eliminated, I tried so hard and a lot of the girls even thought I did good so I was just really confused. I didn’t feel like it was my time to go.”

Even though she didn’t want to leave, a couple episodes earlier, Kyle almost quit the competition, something she is now glad she didn’t do.

“I obviously didn’t really want to go. It was just so stressful at the time. We don’t really get to speak to our parents that much and then living with all these other girls is so stressful because you’re with them all day, all night, and it’s like you never get a break,” explains Kyle.

“And then when we got into the judging room and everyone was being mean to me because I got good critiques on my little commercial I thought that was unfair and I just had a breaking point.”

Despite what the judges said when they eliminated her (Kelly Cutrone even went so far as to say she was going downhill in the competition), Kyle thought she “rocked” her photo shoot – butt pad and all.

“The reason why I had to wear that was because all of the dresses didn’t fit me. I went through every dress on the rack and they were just hanging off of me because I was the smallest girl in the house.”

Kyle says she was fine with wearing the pad to enhance her “booty tooch,” but she had no idea until she watched the episode that the other girls felt it would give her an unfair advantage.

“I saw how mad they were when I heard the comments from that episode but when we were there, we were joking around . . . I would’ve refused to wear it if I knew it would’ve made the girls so upset.”

But Kyle has no other regrets and says she learned a lot during her time on “ANTM,” especially during the episode where she and the other models travelled to Canada to take part in Toronto Fashion Week.  

“Doing the castings, going to the bookings and stuff like that, it really just showed me how much I needed to work on my walk.”

She also fell in love with Toronto while she was here. 

“It was so amazing!” she gushes. “I can’t even explain (it). It’s so much cleaner than America. Just the air – I just felt like I could breathe, just take deep breaths and I wouldn’t be polluted. It was just so beautiful, too.”

Kyle plans to continue modeling but first she has another major project in the works.

“I’m going to be a mom!” exclaims Kyle, who adds she looks up to models like Heidi Klum and Adriana Lima, who are also mothers.

“Hopefully I will snap back into shape. I’m trying to eat really healthy  . . . and hopefully just take some acting classes and continue to model (after the baby comes). I’m definitely not giving up.”

 Watch 'ANTM' first in Canada exclusively at CTV.ca.

 About Sheri Block

Sheri Block has been covering entertainment for CTV.ca since 2008. In addition to covering Will and Kate’s Royal Wedding in London, Sheri’s highlights have included going on tour with “Canadian Idol,” being a stand-in on “Canada’s Next Top Model” and meeting Colin Farrell at the Toronto International Film Festival.Follow her on Twitter!