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Miss J Alexander became a breakout star as the flamboyant catwalk coach on America’s Next Top Model. With a background in high fashion and decades of experience working alongside elite designers and supermodels, Alexander brought theatrical flair and serious industry credibility to the hit reality series. His larger-than-life presence and tough-love mentoring style helped define the show’s early seasons. Unfortunately, he had a stroke well after the series ended, which he discussed in Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. Here’s what to know.

Miss J Alexander discussed having a stroke in Netflix’s ‘Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model’

America’s Next Top Model fans know Miss J Alexander for his many years as the runway coach. He served as a recurring coach on the show from cycles 1-4. In cycles 5-18, he was promoted to a main judge. Then, he returned in cycle 21 as a runway coach before appearing as a guest in cycle 22.

In a deeply personal revelation showcased in the Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, Alexander opened up about a life-altering health crisis he endured at the end of 2022. On Dec. 27, 2022, the longtime America’s Next Top Model runway coach had a major stroke that left him hospitalized and unable to walk or speak. Alexander stayed in a coma for five weeks and woke up in a hospital room with no memory of how he got there. In the docuseries, he described the shock of realizing he had lost abilities that were central to his life.

“I didn’t know where I was other than in the hospital,” Alexander said, according to E! News. “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? I couldn’t walk; I couldn’t speak.”

He added that he felt “emotional” and cried over the health battle.

Now, Alexander says he’s “determined to walk” again. “I miss being the queen of the runway,” he said. “The catwalks, of course. I’m the person who taught models how to walk. And now I can’t walk…. Not yet.” He added that he knows it’s “not over” for him just yet, as he expects to return to the runway someday.

The catwalk coach said Tyra Banks hadn’t visited him since the stroke

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While speaking on Reality Check, Miss J Alexander admitted that Tyra Banks had not visited him since his stroke.

“No, not yet,” he said when asked in the docuseries. “She just sent me a text; she wants to come to visit me. But no, not yet.”

However, America’s Next Top Model alumni Nigel Barker and Jay Manuel showed up in the hospital for Alexander. In response, the runway coach said he “cried” from missing them.

Barker, a photographer and judge, described a funny and sweet moment with Alexander after the stroke. “He was completely paralyzed, and lying there, and only half of his face could move, and one eye,” Barker recalled. “And I said something to him. I’m like, ‘Oh, good. You can’t move. That means that I can really take advantage of you now.’ And he looked at me with his one eye, and he opened it. And he rolled his one eye. I’m like, ‘OK, you’re still there.’ If you’re able to still roll that one eye of yours, I’m like, we’re going to get you back. There’s no stopping Miss J.”

Fans have a lot of love for Miss J Alexander, even with ‘America’s Next Top Model’ in the rearview

America’s Next Top Model fans are seeing the series in a new light thanks to Reality Check. While problematic aspects of the series have come to the forefront, fans still love Miss J Alexander. Many fans on Reddit noted how Alexander genuinely wanted to help the models on the show succeed.

“Always served. Always fair. And an actual mentor with good advice to help girls improve,” one Reddit user commented. “Miss J is the model of what a reality TV contest judge should be.”

Several other fans didn’t find it odd that Tyra Banks didn’t visit Alexander in the hospital following the stroke.

“Personally, I wouldn’t want the boss who fired me seven/eight years earlier showing up at my bedside (in hospital or at home) while I recovered from a major stroke,” another Reddit user noted. “Unless we had somehow managed to stay in touch and had a ‘visit’ kind of relationship already, that would feel awkward and invasive to me.”

“He doesn’t seem sore about it, or at least isn’t trying to create a media thing over it,” another fan pointed out regarding the coach’s relationship with Banks.

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