America’s Next Top Model judge Miss J Alexander reveals secret stroke that left him unable to walk

America’s Next Top Model coach-cum-judge Miss J Alexander has revealed for the first time that he suffered a stroke in 2022 that has left him unable to walk.

The reality TV star and runway icon spoke candidly about his health struggle during episode three of Netflix’s new documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, which traces the chaotic rise and fall of the Tyra Banks-helmed reality show America’s Next Top Model.

Miss J, also known by his full name Alexander Jenkins and as J. Alexander, appeared as a runway coach on America’s Next Top Model from the very first season in 2003. From season five through to the end of season 13, Alexander sat alongside Banks as a judge on the modelling reality show. 

He was replaced as a judge from season 14 in 2012, but continued to appear on the show and its international spin-offs as a runway coach. America’s Next Top Model ended for good in 2018.

On 27 December 2022, Alexander’s famed runway teachings came to a dramatic halt after he was hospitalised due to a stroke.

“I woke up. I didn’t know where I was other than in the hospital,” Alexander explains in Netflix’s new doc.

“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?”

It’s one of the most moving revelations to come from Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, with the runway teacher telling the cameras that he is “not ashamed to say that [he] cried” after his health battle.

“I miss being the queen of the runway,” he continued.

“The catwalks, of course. I’m the person who taught models how to walk. I taught models how to walk, but now I can’t walk.”

While the documentary was filmed in early 2025, as of February 2026 Alexander is still unable to walk.

“I can’t walk. Not yet. Not yet,” the model, who is gay, reveals in the doc. “I’m determined to walk. I’m sure you’re gonna see me again, I’m sure. It’s not over for me yet.”

Later on in the doc, Alexander confesses that his long-time colleague and the star at the centre of America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks, didn’t visit him in the hospital during his stroke ordeal, nor has she visited him since. She did, however, message him saying that she wished to visit him soon.

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is streaming on Netflix now.

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