Smize and Lows: Tyra Banks Seeks Spiritual Healing After Breakup

Wonderwall, Monday, December 12, 2011, 9:19am (PST)

By Kat Giantis

• Someone may be having trouble smiling with her eyes or any other part of her anatomy. Tyra Banks has parted ways with John Utendahl, her investment banker beau of three-plus years, prompting her to take an "Eat Pray Love"-esque "spiritual trip" to Bali, says the New York Post.

  "Tyra has gone away with a female friend," relays an insider, "and has been island-hopping, visiting Bali and taking a spiritual retreat."

  Fingers crossed that the respite results in a book as entertainingly crazy as the "America's Next Top Model" mogul's recent literary effort, "Modelland," centering on Tyra-like beauty, Tookie De La Crème.

  Anyhoo, the split comes less than three months after Banks, 38, stepped out with Utendahl, 53, for the opening night of New York's Metropolitan Opera (and a year after she wore a fishnet stocking over her face while out with him in Paris).

  Last week, Tyra insisted to Larry King that her dictatorial manner and seemingly all-consuming fascination with herself is simply a "persona" she's adopted for the small screen.

  "It's a character," she explained. "Like, in real life, I'm passive-aggressive. ... I'm even in coaching to, like, learn how to be confrontational."

  Perhaps that's among the lessons she's learning during her studies at Harvard Business School. And Tyra may be able to put it to use should she run into Utendahl sometime soon: The Post spied him out late last week with a "leggy Russian model."

  Tyra's rep acknowledges that she's on a getaway but remains mum on her private life.

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