America’s Next Top Model star J Alexander, 67, reveals stroke left him ‘unable to walk’

The former America’s Next Top Model star revealed that she suffered a stroke that left her hospitalized for a year.

A health ordeal in 2022 also left him unable to walk.

Miss J Alexander shares her story in the new Netflix documentary series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, which airs on the streamer today as a look back at the reality show and its grim legacy.

The three-parter includes a series of surprises, with host Tyra Banks and her fellow judges – Jay Manuel, J Alexander and Nigel Barker – finally discussing some of the most shocking moments, from controversial challenges to the treatment of contestants.

America’s Next Top Model aired for 24 seasons, starting in the early 2000s. Alexander rose to fame as a catwalk trainer, appearing from 2003 to 2012.

After showcasing her best modeling tricks and giving advice to aspiring models on how to show off their work on the catwalk, she opened up about her personal struggle, namely a stroke she suffered four years ago.

In the documentary, the TV personality – whose real name is Alexander Jenkis – begins: ‘On December 27 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 can’t talk. And I thought, “What am I going to do?”’

Going deeper, he added: ‘I’m not ashamed to say that I cried.’

The impact of the stroke and how it hampered Alexander’s mobility took a huge toll on him, as his entire career has been centered around movement.

Not only was she asked to be a part of ANTM by Banks personally after coaching her when she was a teenager, but she also appeared on the international version of Top Model to spread her skills widely.

“I miss being a runway queen,” Alexander admits in the doc, which was filmed about a year ago. ‘Of course on the catwalk.

‘I’m the one who teaches the model how to walk. I teach models how to walk.’

Alexander also shared that his co-stars, Manuel and Barker, visited him while he was in hospital, with Barker, 53, admitting: ‘I don’t know if he would want me to see him like that.

‘I was going to go see him. And it was just a terrible surprise and really upsetting, terrible and scary.’

The photographer said he could ‘feel how upset’ she was [Alexander] is’ ​​and ‘can only imagine where he is in his mind’.

Together, they shared an emotional moment, Barker holding his friend as he cried.

In contrast, executive producer Banks did not visit Alexander.

When asked during the documentary whether the 52-year-old model had seen him since then, Alexander said he had not.

But, he claimed, Banks had sent him a message, saying she wanted to.

Until now, unfortunately Alexander is still unable to walk while continuing his recovery process.

‘I can’t walk. Not yet. Not yet. I am determined to walk,’ he further said.

Vowing to return again, he added defiantly: ‘I’m sure you’ll see me again, I’m sure. It’s not over for me.’

As for what Alexander did – stating that he was ‘out [his] mom’s belly in high heels’ – which she’s done since leaving Next Top Model, she taught at the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design for 15 years.

He and Banks still follow each other on Instagram and occasionally communicate, although he does not delve into their current relationship in the documentary.

Despite having been friends 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 recalled in the doc. ‘I said, ‘Oh, how sweet!’ There was a message, “Happy birthday, darling, Tyra.” And then I was fired five days later.’

However, he remembers his days on the program fondly, describing the early seasons as like a ‘fairy tale’, but has previously admitted that not everything was handled properly.

‘I think about those girls, what they went through, and how they were treated. I saw the devastating impact, and I wondered if we knew what we were doing to them,’ he told The Guardian in 2022.

However, he also stated that ‘they knew what they were getting into’.

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

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