Emily Bashforth
Published February 16, 2026 7:00pm
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Miss J Alexander suffered a stroke in 2022 and was in a coma for five weeks (Picture: Erik Pendzich/REX)
A former star of America’s Next Top Model has revealed he suffered a stroke that saw him hospitalised for a year.
The health ordeal in 2022 also left him unable to walk.
Miss J Alexander shares his story in the new Netflix docuseries, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, which dropped on the streamer today as a look back on the reality show and its muddy legacy.
The three-parter includes a string of bombshells, with host Tyra Banks and her fellow judges – Jay Manuel, J Alexander, and Nigel Barker – finally addressing some of the most shocking moments, from controversial challenges to treatment of contestants.
America’s Next Top Model aired for 24 seasons, beginning in the early 2000s. Alexander rose to fame as a catwalk coach, appearing from 2003 to 2012.
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After showcasing his best modelling tricks and advising aspiring models on how to strut their stuff on a catwalk, he has opened up about his personal battles, namely his stroke four years ago.
Pictured here in 2019, he was left unable to walk after the stroke (Picture: Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Victoria Hayes)
In the documentary, the TV personality – whose real name is Alexander Jenkis – begins: ‘On December 27th of 2022, I had a stroke. I woke up. I didn’t know where I was other than in the hospital.
‘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?”‘
Getting deep, he adds: ‘I’m not ashamed to say that I cried.’
The impact of the stroke and how it inhibited Alexander’s mobility was especially devastating for him, since his whole career centred around movement.
Not only was he asked to be part of ANTM by Banks personally after coaching her when she was a teenager, but he also went on to appear in international versions of Top Model to spread his expertise far and wide.
‘I miss being the queen of the runway,’ Alexander admits in the doc, which was filmed around a year ago. ‘The catwalks, of course.
Alexander, now 67, was hospitalised for a year and is still recovering (Picture: Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images)
What are the symptoms of a stroke?
The NHS outlines that the symptoms of a stroke can be remembered by using the acronym FAST, which stands for Face, Arms, Speech and Time.
When an individual suffers a stroke, they may not be able to smile, their face may have dropped to one side or their mouth or eye may have dropped.
They may not be able to lift both of their arms and keep them up, as one of their arms could be feeling weak or numb.
They may exhibit slurred or unclear speech, or be unable to talk at all and have difficulty understanding if someone else is speaking to them.
People are urged to call 999 if any of these symptoms are spotted.
The charity Stroke Association offers a helpline for anyone who has suffered or been affected by stroke, or if you want further information. You can call the helpline on 0303 3033 100 or email [email protected].
‘I’m the person who taught models how to walk. I taught models how to walk.’
Alexander also shares that his co-stars, Manuel and Barker, visited him while he was in hospital, with Barker, 53, confessing: ‘I don’t know whether he even wanted me to see him in that way.
‘I was going to go see him. And that was just such a terrible shock and really upsetting and horrifying and scary.’
The photographer says he could ‘feel how upset [Alexander] was’ and can ‘only imagine where he was in his mind’.
Together, they shared emotional moments, Barker holding his friend while he cried.
In contrast, executive producer Banks did not visit Alexander.
Co-star Nigel Barker (right visited him, and they shared emotional moments (Picture: CW Network/Kobal/Shutterstock)
Tyra Banks has not gone to see him ‘yet’ (Picture: David Livingston/Getty Images)
Asked during documentary filming if the 52-year-old model had been to see him since then, Alexander says she has not ‘yet’.
But, he claims, Banks has texted him, saying she wants to.
To this day, sadly, Alexander still cannot walk as he continues his recovery.
‘I can’t walk. Not yet. Not yet. I’m determined to walk,’ he says further.
Vowing to make a comeback, he adds defiantly: ‘I’m sure you’re gonna see me again, I’m sure. It’s not over for me yet.’
As for what Alexander – who declares that he ‘came out of [his] mother’s stomach with high heels’ – has done since leaving Next Top Model, he taught at the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design for 15 years.
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Previous Page Next PageHe and Banks still follow one another on Instagram and occasionally communicate, although he doesn’t delve into their current relationship in the documentary.
Despite having been pals with Alexander for years, Banks decided to take ANTM in a more ‘mature’ direction in 2012, which led to Alexander, Manuel, and Barker being ‘let go’.
‘For my birthday, Tyra sent me flowers,’ he recalls in the doc. ‘I said, “Oh, how sweet!” There was a note, “Happy birthday, love, Tyra.” And then I was fired five days later.’
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Still, he remembers his days on the programme fondly, describing the early seasons as like a ‘fairytale’, but has previously acknowledged that not everything may have been handled correctly.
‘I think about the girls, what they went through, and how they were treated. I look at the backlash, and I do wonder if we knew what we were putting them through,’ he told The Guardian in 2022.
However, he also stated that ‘they knew what they were getting into’.
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Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is streaming on Netflix.
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