Jamie Foxx Finally Reveals the Truth Behind His Medical Crisis Last Year

Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek’s network of contributors

Jamie Foxx has broken his silence regarding the 2023 medical scare that landed him in the hospital.

In his new Netflix comedy special, What Had Happened Was…, the 56-year-old credited Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia with saving his life. He said that it all began April 11, when he was having a bad headache, and asked one of his friends for aspirin.

“I realized quickly that when you’re in a medical emergency, your boys don’t know what the f**k to do,” he joked, before revealing he was unconscious for a number of weeks. “I don’t remember 20 days,” he added.

The Django Unchained star recalled visiting a doctor in Atlanta who simply gave him a cortisone shot before sending him on his way. “What the f**k is that? I don’t know if you can do Yelps for doctors, but that’s half a star,” he quipped.

Thankfully, his sister Deidra Dixon took control, and brought him to the facility that would eventually provide him with answers. He recalled her saying, “That ain’t my brother right there.” She got him in the car and drove around, before coming to Piedmont Hospital, because Jamie said, “she had a hunch that some angels [were] in there.”

There, Dixon learned that her brother was “having a brain bleed that has led to a stroke,” and if he wasn’t operated on immediately, he could die. “My sister knelt down outside the operating room and prayed the whole time,” he shared.

The procedure went well enough that the doctor told Jamie’s sister he “may be able to make a full recovery, but it’s going to be the worst year of his life.” The Dreamgirls star confirmed that it had been just that. That’s where another family member — his daughter Corinne Foxx — stepped in to protect him from the public, with Jamie saying she, “cut it all off.”

The Grammy winner got visibly emotional as he explained, “They didn’t want you to see me like that. And I didn’t want you to see me like that. I want you to see me like this.” He recalled waking up in a Chicago rehab center on May 4 in a wheelchair, struggling to comprehend that he’d had a stroke.

Closing out the special, he recalled the difficult recovery process, saying he “lost everything.” He noted that the one thing he could hold onto was his sense of humor. He ended the set by thanking the audience and his family for their support, before singing, “Thank you for my body. Thank you for my soul.”