BANGKOK, Thailand — Miss Jamaica Gabrielle Henry’s tumble from the Miss Universe stage during a preliminary evening gown round on Wednesday has sparked a safety scare, even though pageant officials said she didn’t break any bones. The mishap, filmed in viral clips, sees her falling from a dimly lit runway before medics run out with a stretcher on Nov. 20, 2025.
Video from the show in Thailand captures the 28-year-old doctor halting to strike a pose at the edge of the stage in an orange gown and high heels, just before she takes that heart-stopping step into thin air at the side of a platform — disappearing as the crowd gasps. She was transported on a stretcher and brought to Paolo Rangsit Hospital in the outskirts of Bangkok by local doctors, who told her she was not life-threateningly injured, according to People magazine.
The Miss Universe Jamaica business issued a statement that Miss Jamaica had experienced “a fall from the main stage” and was undergoing tests at Paolo Rangsit to ensure a full recovery. Miss Universe owner Raul Rocha later posted that he had just left her beside, that there were “no broken bones,” and that she was under close care, being kept for overnight observation, as reported in a more specific injury update from the International Business Times.
Witnesses and commentators said the edge of the runway was hard to see under stage lighting, and some online posts have speculated that a hole or gap contributed to Miss Jamaica’s stumble. Organisers haven’t confirmed that news, but one of the contestants, Miss Great Britain’s Danielle Latimer, also had a fall this week when she slipped on her way to the stage, quickly righted herself, and laughed off the spill.
While the scary scenes unfolded, Wednesday’s PPV Prelims show at Impact Challenger Hall in Pak Kret went on after Henry was escorted out, with some fans taking issue, arguing that the broadcast should have halted to update her status. The 74th Miss Universe pageant’s semifinals conclude, and the finals take place this weekend in Thailand.
Henry, an ophthalmologist and a disabilities advocate for the visually impaired, managed medical training at the University Hospital of the West Indies, served as a pageant judge, and ran her foundation, See Me Foundation, to help people who are blind or visually impaired. Weeks after Jamaica was lashed by Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, Miss Universe entered the competition, promising to take Jamaica’s spirit with her to Thailand, The Gleaner reported.
Before taking to the contest stage, Henry said she arrived in Thailand “with a very heavy heart,” as her country began the long rebuilding process after storm-battered communities were left in ruins and hundreds of thousands of people went without power. Through send-off parties and online, scores of Jamaicans have inundated Miss Jamaica’s social-media pages with prayers and words of encouragement since the fall.
The scare is only the most recent in a string of pageant gaffes that have unfolded live to an international audience. The stumbles of Miss USA Rachel Smith during Miss Universe 2007’s evening gown competition in Mexico City and fellow Miss USA Crystle Stewart at the 2008 contest were covered by CBS News and later remembered more recently in an ABC News retrospective on pageant blunders.
Fans have also taken to comparing the backlash over Miss Jamaica’s injury with other Miss Universe controversies, such as host Steve Harvey’s infamous 2015 evening when he mistakenly declared the wrong winner and had to literally take a crown from Miss Colombia and place it on Miss Philippines in front of viewers at home — an error Business Insider has detailed. Those moments helped solidify the pageant’s status as unforgettable, sometimes uncomfortable TV.
Miss Universe authorities have not decided whether Miss Jamaica will be deemed fit for Friday’s final in Pak Kret, pending advice from doctors and her recovery. In the meantime, organisers and the Miss Universe Jamaica franchise are asking her fans to keep her in their thoughts as doctors test her and monitor her illness.
