Miss Jamaica sues Miss Universe Organization after life-altering stage fall - USA Today
Dr. Gabrielle Henry's recovery has been harrowing since the Miss Universe contestant fell off the stage nearly one year ago.
Miss Jamaica 2025 opened up in a People magazine essay on Sept. 23 about her severe injuries, after the pageant queen and medical doctor fell in an "unguarded" hole on the preliminary rounds stage in November. She said the fall "permanently altered the course of my life," and that "all at once, a beautiful moment became a shattered dream."
The essay comes as Henry files a lawsuit against Miss Universe and others, accusing the organization of negligence, including in supervising the pageant's producer, Thai company Miss Grand International, premises liability and infliction of emotional distress.
Miss Universe Organization officials initially characterized her injuries as "a couple of minor wounds," but weeks later, the pageant confirmed in a December statement that the "serious fall" resulted in "significant injuries" and that it took "full and immediate responsibility without hesitation," including paying for her medical bills.
In a Delaware Superior Court lawsuit filed Monday, Sept. 21, Henry agreed, pointing to the absence of safety protocols during the show and the prioritization of aesthetics over safety.
Henry said while walking across the stage, she was "blinded by the intense lighting" with "no illumination beyond the edge" before falling into an "unmarked and uncovered opening in the stage" about five feet deep, which contained concrete and lighting equipment, per the lawsuit. "This opening was not barricaded, illuminated, nor did it have a sign," and no safety markers were on the stage during rehearsals or the live broadcast despite contestant complaints, she said.
USA TODAY has reached out to the Miss Universe Organization for comment.
The fall resulted in "extreme medical" and "permanent brain injuries." Henry "lost consciousness on impact and sustained a traumatic brain injury with acute subarachnoid hemorrhage, frontal lobe hemorrhagic contusion, and subdural hemorrhage," or brain bleeds, the lawsuit added, as well as facial lacerations and a fracture.
During a Sept. 24 interview on "Good Morning America," Henry said she has "no recollection of the fall" and that her first memory was seeing her mother standing over her, looking concerned, before blacking out again.
Henry said in her People essay that she also suffered collapsed lungs that had filled with fluid, severe back pain, "indescribable and excruciatingly painful" headaches and memory loss.
"You come back knowing something within you has become misaligned, out of place …" she wrote. "Your thoughts lag behind time, and certain memories become hard to grasp."
Henry was hospitalized in Bangkok and later Jamaica on and off from November 2025 to March 2026, resulting in her no longer being able to complete her residency, while her injuries have complicated her career in ophthalmology and caused "continuing uncertainty" over her future as a doctor.
"As an ophthalmologist, being in the hospital was also a particularly painful reminder of what I had lost on the way down during my fall," she wrote in People magazine. "I've transformed from student to doctor to patient, and I am trying to move forward again by continuing my career on a modified schedule and with my providers on speed dial."
Miss Jamaica made her first public appearance since the fall in May, for an Atlanta charity event, while seated in a chair. She was able to return to the stage in August to crown her successor, Miss Jamaica 2026 Nevaeh Allen.
"As pageant queens, we are tasked with lifting others up. Throughout my journey, I learned to let others do the lifting," she wrote. "I continue to stand firm in my belief that the true reason for my fall, the meaning behind it all, will reveal itself somehow."
