Lawsuit comes nearly 1 year after her fall from the pageant stage

Former Miss Universe Jamaica, Gabrielle Henry, has filed a lawsuit against the Miss Universe Organisation, alleging that negligence and unsafe conditions led to her fall during the 2025 Miss Universe competition.

She is also suing two of international pageantry’s parent companies, JKN Legacy Inc. and Legacy Holding Group USA. Henry is accusing the organisation of negligence, stating that this led to her shocking fall from the Miss Universe pageant stage last November, which made international headlines.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday, September 21, in Delaware Superior Court, brings five claims against the defendants, including negligence; premises liability; negligent hiring, retention and supervision; and both negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

 Henry suffered severe brain injuries, preventing her from continuing her medical residency, among other losses of earning capacity and professional opportunities associated with her medical career.

Details of the lawsuit

In the lawsuit, the Jamaican beauty queen recounts following rehearsed choreography during the preliminary portion of the Miss Universe competition on November 19, 2025, when she fell about five feet through an “unmarked and uncovered opening in the stage,” which contained both lighting equipment and concrete. 

She claims intense lighting facing her during her rehearsed walk impaired her visibility and caused her to fall from the stage. Henry says she lost consciousness on impact and suffered “traumatic brain injury with acute subarachnoid haemorrhage, frontal lobe hemorrhagic contusion, and subdural haemorrhage” that required her to be hospitalised from November 19 to December 10, 2025.

For Henry, the event was the “most traumatic moment” of her life, contending with the intense media coverage that her fall drew “has caused, and continues to cause, severe emotional distress distinct from, and in addition to, the distress arising from her physical injuries.”

Severe injuries suffered

Henry, a then-practising ophthalmologist, was left with injuries that made her “unable to resume her medical residency” at the time and have caused her to continuously suffer “neurological and cognitive symptoms,” which continue to require ongoing care, rehabilitation and follow-ups.

The suit also alleges that other contestants had complained about the lighting and staging conditions and that, following Henry’s fall, the stage was “modified to add bright white lights to illuminate the edging of the stage.” Henry’s suit claims that the Miss Universe Organisation and, by extension, the other defendants were “wanton, reckless, and in conscious disregard of the safety of Plaintiff and the other contestants.”

In a statement to PEOPLE, the Miss Universe Organisation claims that “To date, the Organisation has not been served with, nor has it received, any lawsuit, claim, demand letter, or subpoena from Ms Henry or anyone acting on her behalf. We are therefore not in a position to comment on claims we have not seen.”