Tyra Banks: 'Motherhood is heavenly'

Tyra Banks can't help but wake her baby boy up in the middle of the night to cuddle him.

The American supermodel and her boyfriend Erik Asla, 51, welcomed their first child, a son named York Banks-Asla, via surrogate in January (16). Accordingly, the TV personality and fashion maven now finds herself running her empire from home more often so that she can spend as much time as possible with her six-month-old. And even though the pressures of motherhood can be tiring, Tyra says that life since welcoming her baby has been "heaven"

Even just last night, I picked him up out of his crib ... and I'm like, 'I know I'm not supposed to, he's sleeping all night,' but I just picked him up and I just held him for 20 minutes at three in the morning, knowing I had to be here bright eyed for a photoshoot," she gushed to Entertainment Tonight. "It's that love."

The former host of reality TV show America's Next Top Model is currently balancing parenting duties with her various business and branded ventures. Though it is a busy time, Tyra is grateful that she gets to collaborate with her Norwegian photographer beau Erik much of the time.


The 42-year-old shares that she and Erik work so well together because of the way in which they can be completely honest with each other about their ideas for a photoshoot or imagery for a product launch. "Because we love each other, I can be like, 'I hate this shot, what is this?' and he can be like, 'You stand there and you stare into my camera.' I'm like, 'I don't want to!' and he's like 'You stay there!'" smiled Tyra.

Tyra, who launched her cosmetics line Tyra Beauty in 2014, added that she's impressed with how her team dealt with her absence while she was on maternity leave. She said the company was doing "so well" and her staff members are very empowered.

"It just goes to show, surround yourself with really strong people and empower them and they can really truly be successful," she said.