Dr. Gabrielle Henry, a former Miss Universe contestant representing Jamaica, has filed a lawsuit against Miss Universe and others, accusing the organization of negligence.
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, 2026, about her severe injuries, after the pageant queen and medical doctor fell in an “unguarded” hole on the preliminary rounds stage in November 2025.
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, 2026, 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, according to 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.
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 essay published by People that she also suffered collapsed lungs that had filled with fluid, severe back pain, “indescribable and excruciatingly painful” headaches and memory loss.
She described the traumatic brain injury as feeling like an “out-of-body experience” where you’ve “returned to one that is not your own”
“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.
