“Now that I’m retired and sitting back, I look at her and go, ‘Holy cow, she’s amazing.’ And that’s my baby!”—Carolyn London Tyra Banks has always been close to her mother, Carolyn London. But just how close was hammered home to them when Banks’s 2-year-old son, York, came up with a double-duty nickname. “He calls us Mama Nana,” says Banks with a laugh.
Throughout Banks’s life, London, who once managed her daughter’s career, has been indispensable: helping Banks break into modelling at 15, encouraging her to break down racial and physical barriers in the fashion world and, more recently, standing by her side as Banks, 44, battled fertility issues before becoming a mother herself.
“It hurt me so much to watch her struggle,” says London, 72. Now Banks, who split…
