“America's Next Top Model” Runway Coach Miss J Alexander Reveals He Had a Stroke That Left Him Unable to Walk

In 'Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model,' Alexander shared that he had a stroke in 2022

NEED TO KNOW

• In Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model on Netflix, runway coach Miss J Alexander reveals he had a stroke in 2022
• Following the stroke, Alexander couldn’t walk or talk
• Alexander shares that fellow ANTM stars Nigel Barker and Jay Manuel visited him in the hospital but Tyra Banks did not

Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model was full of bombshell moments, but one of the biggest was learning of Miss J Alexander's health struggles in the third episode.

In the new Netflix documentary, streaming now, Alexander, 67, revealed that in 2022 he had a stroke that left him in the hospital for over a year. It also left him 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," Alexander shares in the documentary. "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?"

In a vulnerable moment, Alexander also admits that he cried throughout his health journey.

"I'm not ashamed to say that I cried," he says.

Alexander, whose real name is Alexander Jenkins, rose to pop culture prominence as the catwalk coach on America's Next Top Model from cycles 1 (in 2003) through 18 (in 2012). For several seasons, he also acted as a judge. Host and executive producer Tyra Banks asked him to be a part of the show, because he taught her to walk as a teenager.

Year after year on ANTM, he showed models his best tips and tricks for walking a runway, then moving on to international iterations of Top Model to spread his knowledge even farther.

This is part of what made his stroke and inability to walk so painful for him.

"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," Alexander candidly shares in the Netflix documentary, which was filmed about a year ago.

While he was in the hospital, Alexander was visited by close friends and fellow America's Next Top Model stars Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker.

"I don’t know whether he even wanted me to see him in that way," Barker, 53, shares in the documentary. "I was going to go see him. And that was just such a terrible shock and really upsetting and horrifying and scary."

Barker adds that he held Alexander while they cried together, processing the emotions that came from such a health struggle.

"I could feel how upset he was for sure. I can only imagine where he was in his mind," Manuel, 53, adds of Alexander. 

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

One person who didn't visit Alexander while he was in the hospital — or in the time since — is Banks. When asked in the documentary if she had paid him a visit, Alexander says she hadn't "yet" but added that she had texted him saying she wanted to.

In the time since his stroke and amid his recovery, Alexander has kept his life quite private, rarely posting on social media. He did, however, share the Reality Check trailer and a post for Black History Month in the past few weeks — his first posts in nearly a year.

Alexander also promises in the documentary that there's more to come from him.

"I can’t walk. Not yet. Not yet. I’m determined to walk. I’m sure you’re gonna see me again, I’m sure. It’s not over for me yet."

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

Read the full article here