Jamie Foxx has revealed that he suffered a stroke that almost killed him.
During his Netflix comedy special Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…, Foxx, 56, shared that the April 2023 medical emergency he experienced in April 2023 on the Atlanta set of his film Back in Action was caused by a “brain bleed that led to a stroke.”
Fighting back tears as he recounted the incident, the Academy Award winner grew emotional, pausing to wipe tears before telling the audience, “Please, Lord, let me get through this.”
“April 11, I was having a bad headache, and I asked my boy for an Aspirin. I realized quickly that when you’re in a medical emergency, your boys don’t know what the f— to do,” Foxx went on before adding, “Before I could get the Aspirin [clicks his fingers], I went out. I don’t remember 20 days.”
Foxx shared how friends initially took him to a doctor in Atlanta, who administered a cortisone shot and simply “sent me home.” However, it was his sister, Deidra Dixon, who recognized something was seriously wrong.
“What the f— is that?” Foxx joked, “I don’t know if you can do Yelps for doctors, but that’s half a star.”
Foxx explained that his sister drove him around Atlanta until they stumbled upon Piedmont Hospital, which the “Django Unchained” actor told the audience was just “400 yards away” from where the special was filmed.
“Y’all saved my life just 400 yards away from here in Piedmont Hospital. They put me back together again,” he said.
“She didn’t know anything about Piedmont Hospital, but she had a hunch that some angels [were] in there,” he added.
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At Piedmont, Foxx said a doctor delivered “some horrible news” to Dixon about her brother. “He’s having a brain bleed that has led to a stroke,” Foxx recalled the doctor saying, explaining that if surgery wasn’t performed immediately, he wouldn’t survive.
“If I don’t go in his head right now, we’re going to lose him,” Foxx remembered his sister being told, adding that she “knelt down outside the operating room and prayed the whole time.”
“Your life doesn’t flash before your face. It was kind of oddly peaceful,” Foxx said of being unconscious, adding that he “saw the tunnel. I didn’t see the light. I was in that tunnel, though. It was hot in that tunnel. S—, am I going to the wrong place in this mother——? Because I looked at the end of the tunnel, and I thought I saw the devil like, ‘Come on.”
Foxx went on to share that the doctor informed Dixon about the severity of his medical emergency.
“We didn’t find where it was coming from, but he is having a stroke. He may be able to make a full recovery, but it’s going to be the worst year of his life,” the doctor said. “That’s what it was, Atlanta. You finally got the story. You saved my life.”
The actor then detailed how he woke up from his coma after 20 days and found himself in a wheelchair.
“20 days I don’t remember, but on May 4th I woke up [clicks fingers], and I when i woke up I found myself in a wheelchair. I couldn’t walk, in a wheelchair, and i was like, ‘Why the f— am i in a wheelchair?’ I’m just coming out of s—.”
And while he initially struggled to accept the fact that he had a stroke, a physical therapist named Holly gave him some tough love that got him into rehab.
“I said, ‘That’s old man s–t. Jamie Foxx don’t get strokes. Stop this f—ing prank,” he recalled telling his friends. “They flew me to Chicago for my rehab. Every therapist that came in, I said, ‘Get the f–k out.’ I gave up.”
Eventually, Holly helped him recover, and he’s currently doing better than ever.
“They said I was paralyzed. Said I couldn’t walk. But look at me now,” he quipped, dancing to Unk’s “Walk It Out.”
Ending on a heartfelt note, Foxx expressed his deep gratitude to everyone who prayed for his recovery, to his nurses and doctors, to his family, to God, and to the city of Atlanta.
As he shook hands with audience members in the front row, Foxx sang, “Thank you for my body. Thank you for my soul.”
