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  "path": "/latest/miss-j-alexander-americas-next-top-model-star-says-stroke-left-him-unable-to-walk/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-17T04:38:09.000Z",
  "site": "https://humenglish.com",
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    "Miss J Alexander: ‘America’s Next Top Model’ star says stroke left him unable to walk",
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  "textContent": "“I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk.”\n\nMiss J Alexander, the flamboyant runway coach who helped define _America’s Next Top Model_ , has revealed that a stroke left him in a coma for five weeks and unable to walk.\n\nThe 67-year-old television personality, born Alexander Jenkins, suffered the stroke on December 27, 2022. He opens up about the life-altering health crisis in Netflix’s new docuseries _Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model_ , which premiered on February 16.\n\n“I woke up. I didn’t know where I was other than in the hospital,” he says in the series. “I couldn’t walk. And I couldn’t talk. And I thought to myself, what was I going to do?”\n\nAlexander spent five weeks in a coma and more than a year in recovery. Although he has since regained his speech, he remains unable to walk as of February 2026.\n\nThe development carries a sharp irony for the man once known as the “Queen of the Catwalk”, whose career was built on teaching aspiring models how to command a runway.\n\n“I’m the person who taught models how to walk,” he says. “And now I can’t walk. Not yet.”\n\nAlexander was part of _America’s Next Top Model_  from its very first cycle in 2003. Creator and host Tyra Banks invited him to join after he had coached her runway walk as a teenager. He quickly became a breakout personality, serving as the show’s main runway coach before later becoming a judge.\n\nAlongside Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker, he helped shape the early identity of the modelling competition series.\n\n“I taught a girl how to walk with confidence,” Alexander says in the documentary. “When that clicks, it’s like, ‘Oh my god, you’re really quite beautiful.’”\n\nHe appeared on every cycle until 19, when he, Manuel and Barker were let go in a major revamp in 2012. Reflecting on that moment in the Netflix series, Alexander recalls receiving birthday flowers from Banks shortly before being dismissed.\n\n“And then I was fired five days later,” he says.\n\nDespite his departure, he continued coaching on international versions of _America’s Next Top Model_  and taught at the Savannah College of Art and Design for 15 years.\n\nHis career came to an abrupt halt with the stroke in 2022.\n\nIn the docuseries, Alexander becomes emotional describing his recovery.\n\n“I cried,” he says. “I’m not ashamed to say that I cried.”\n\nHe also speaks about the support he received from former colleagues Manuel and Barker, who visited him in hospital. When asked whether Banks had visited him following the stroke, Alexander said she had not, though she had sent a message expressing her intention to do so.\n\nThe reunion with Manuel and Barker is captured in the final moments of _Reality Check_ , as the trio embrace and reflect on their shared history.\n\nNow focused on rehabilitation, Alexander remains determined.\n\n“I can’t walk. Not yet,” he says. “I’m determined to walk. I’m sure you’re going to see me again. It’s not over for me yet.”\n\nThe post Miss J Alexander: ‘America’s Next Top Model’ star says stroke left him unable to walk appeared first on HUM News.",
  "title": "Miss J Alexander: ‘America’s Next Top Model’ star says stroke left him unable to walk"
}