February 17, 2026
Tyra Banks Caught Heat Online For Not Visiting Miss J After Life-Altering Stroke
Miss J. Alexander of "America's Next Top Model" revealed a 2022 stroke that left him paralyzed, also sharing that former friend Tyra Banks has yet to visit.
Miss J. Alexander, the iconic runway coach from “America’s Next Top Model,” revealed in a new Netflix documentary about the modeling competition show that he suffered a life-altering stroke in late 2022 that left him paralyzed. His former mentee and boss didn’t see about him.
Toward the end of episode three of Netflix’s “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” docuseries, Miss J. Alexander becomes emotional as he publicly shares for the first time that he suffered a stroke on Dec. 27, 2022, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
“I had a stroke. I woke up, I didn’t know where I was, other than the hospital,” Miss J. said in the docuseries. “I spent five weeks in a coma, and I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. I thought to myself, what was I going to do? I couldn’t walk, I could’t speak. It was emotional, and I cried. I’m not ashamed to say that. I cried, and then once I was in the hospital, Jay [Manuel] and Nigel [Barker] came to visit.”
“I taught models how to walk. And now I can’t walk,” Miss J. added, in a clip shared online. “Not yet. I’m sure you’re gonna see me again. I’m sure.”
The documentary later reunites Miss J. with Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker, who take their first selfie together since 2019. The trio who served as judges alongside Tyra Banks on “America’s Next Top Model” reflect on their 2011 departures from the show and past tensions with Banks. While Manuel and Barker visited Miss J during his hospitalization, he revealed that Banks had not.
“Did Tyra come and visit you?” a producer is heard asking Miss J, who replied, “No, not yet. She just sent me a text that she wants to come and visit me. But, no, not yet.”
Amid the revelation and a wave of troubling stories shared by former contestants throughout the doc, Banks is under fire online from viewers who feel she failed to take accountability in the series.
“Miss J knew Tyra since she was 16, and she didn’t even visit him in the hospital when he had a stroke….sent him a damn text like some distant co-worker smfh. NASTY WORK! TYRA YOU ARE A NOT A GOOD PERSON,” one X user wrote.
“The documentary for ANTM on Netflix made Tyra Banks look worse. Now, it’s no longer just about the show, and it being dated culturally, it’s about her being a bad person in general. She did the contestants bad, and she did her friends Miss J, J, and Nigel terribly too,” another person tweeted.
“The fact that she couldn’t put her pride aside and go visit Miss J, knowing he can’t walk anymore, really shows how cruel she is,” added another user, who accused Banks of “using” her former friends and judges.
“Girl at this point #TyraBanks is EXACTLY Who they say she is! You will never get me to believe otherwise! Everyone took accountability except her,” one user exclaimed.
Banks ended the three-part documentary by teasing plans for Cycle 25 of the iconic modeling competition, but those comments came before the series premiered and sparked backlash from frustrated fans.
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