By Isabella Torregiani
6:36pm PST, Feb 16, 2026
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Episode three of
Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model hit viewers hard, as
Miss J Alexander opened up about suffering a life-altering stroke.
Keep reading for more on his health struggles… MORE:
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In the Netflix documentary, Miss J Alexander, born Alexander Jenkins, talks about a 2022 stroke that left him hospitalized for more than a year and temporarily unable to walk.
"On December 27th of 2022, I had a stroke. I woke up. I didn't know where I was other than in the hospital," Miss J, 67, said.
"I spent five weeks in a coma, and I couldn't walk. And I couldn't talk. And I thought to myself, what was I going to do?" he recalled.
At one point, Jenkins also revealed just how emotionally draining his recovery was, confessing, "I'm not ashamed to say that I cried."
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As the catwalk coach on
America's Next Top Model from cycle 1 (2003) to cycle 18 (2012), Miss J Alexander guided models and occasionally served as a judge.
Tyra Banks, the show's host and executive producer, invited him to join the series after he coached her on how to walk as a teenager.
Season after season on
ANTM, he shared his top runway techniques with models. He later extended his expertise to international versions of
Top Model.
This is part of what made his stroke and temporary loss of mobility so devastating.
"I miss being the queen of the runway. The catwalks, of course. I'm the person who taught models how to walk. I taught models how to walk," he shared.
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While hospitalized, Miss J Alexander was visited by friends and former ANTM stars Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker.
"I don't know whether he even wanted me to see him in that way," Barker, 53, recalled. "I was going to go see him. And that was just such a terrible shock and really upsetting and horrifying and scary."
Barker said he comforted Alexander as they cried, working through the emotions brought on by his health battle.
"I could feel how upset he was, for sure. I can only imagine where he was in his mind," Manuel, 53, added.
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Tyra Banks, meanwhile, did not visit Miss J Alexander while he was in the hospital — or afterward. He noted in the documentary that the supermodel hadn't come by "yet" but had texted to say she wanted to.
Miss J has stayed largely out of the spotlight in the years since his stroke, sharing very little on
social media.
He did, however, end his year-long hiatus by posting the
Reality Check trailer alongside a Black History Month tribute.
