‘I can’t remember 20 days’: Jamie Foxx says he ‘had a brain bleed that led to a stroke’

Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx has opened up about the medical emergency that struck him in April 2023, which he had kept private until now.

Speaking of the Netflix comedy special Jamie Foxx: What happened was…The star, 56, became emotional as he discussed how his sister was told they could ‘lose him’, and how the experience led to him rediscovering his faith.

Foxx was filming the upcoming comedy Back in Action opposite Cameron Diaz when he started experiencing “severe headaches.” His friends took him to a doctor in Atlanta, who gave him a cortisone shot and then “sent me home,” but his sister, Deidra Dixon, “knew something was wrong.”

Foxx took issue with the medical care he received, saying, “What the fuck is that? I don’t know if you can do Yelps for doctors, but that’s half a star.”

But he had more praise for the staff at the hospital his sister subsequently took him to – and that was a moment from the cinema where he shot the special.

“She suspected there were angels in there,” Foxx said. “You saved my life just 350 meters from here in Piedmont Hospital. They brought me back together.”

By then, Foxx had collapsed, but his sister was given the “terrible news” that her brother “had a brain bleed that led to a stroke… and that if they didn’t operate on him as soon as possible, he would.” die.

“If I don’t go into his head right now, we’re going to lose him,” Foxx recalled his sister being told, adding that she “knelt outside the operating room and prayed the whole time.”

Regarding being unconscious, Foxx said, “Your life doesn’t flash before you. It was kind of strangely peaceful. I’ve seen the tunnel. I didn’t see the light. However, I was in that tunnel. It was hot in that tunnel.

“Shit, am I going to the wrong place in this motherfucker? ‘Cause I looked at the end of the tunnel and I thought I saw the devil and I said, ‘Come on.’ Or is that Puffy (Sean Combs)? I’m just poking around.”

Until the special, Foxx has kept the details of his condition private, leading to significant speculation in the press and among his fans, some of whom started the show with theories.

Foxx explained that he woke up in May and found himself in a wheelchair, but with no idea why. Doctors said he might make a full recovery, but this would likely be the “worst year of his life.”

He tried to recalibrate his new circumstances, he says, joking about his attempts to keep his “pickle” private from his female nurse before discovering that she had been bathing him for a month and a half.

He also thanked numerous physical therapists and a psychiatrist, who led him to the conclusion that reaffirming his Christian faith was key to his recovery, as was maintaining his sense of humor. “If I can stay funny, I can stay alive” became his mantra.