Jamie Foxx reveals story behind near-fatal medical emergency in Netflix comedy special

Jamie Foxx just had the “worst year of his life,” but admits it was “oddly peaceful.”

The 56-year-old “Back In Action” star opened up about his 2023 near-fatal medical emergency during his new Netflix stand-up comedy special, “Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…”

“Your life doesn’t flash before your face,” he said. “It’s kind of oddly peaceful.”

It all started on April 11, 2023, when Foxx asked one of his friends for aspirin to cure a “bad headache.”

“Before I could get the aspirin, I went out. I don’t remember 20 days,” he said, per E! News.

He was immediately rushed to a doctor who gave him a cortisone shot for the pain before sending him on his way.

Foxx joked that he wasn’t sure “if you can do Yelps for doctors,” but said he would give that doctor “half a star.” Fearing the worst-case scenario, Foxx’s sister, Deidra Dixon, 47, decided to take matters into her own hands.

“They said she drove around Atlanta sort of aimlessly. She didn’t really know where the hospitals was, but as she was driving around she came upon Piedmont hospital,” Foxx explained, per Today.

It was at Piedmont Hospital that Foxx and Dixon received “some horrible news.”

“[The doctor] said, ‘He’s having a brain bleed that’s led to a stroke, and if I don’t go in his head right now, we’re going to lose him,’” Foxx continued.

According to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a hemorrhagic stroke occurs “when blood from an artery suddenly begins bleeding into the brain.”

As a result, the part of the body controlled by the damaged area of the brain cannot work properly.

Foxx underwent immediate surgery for the brain bleed, but doctors were unable to locate the source of the bleeding.

“He may be able to make a full recovery, but it’s going to be the worst year of his life,” the doctor told Dixon, per Foxx.

Foxx says he eventually woke up on May 4, 2023, but didn’t remember anything from the previous 20 days and was confined to a wheelchair.

Now more than 19 months later, Foxx is sharing his story.

“That’s what it was Atlanta. You finally got the story. You saved my life,” he said.

Foxx credited his family, including Dixon and his two daughters, Corinne Fox, 30, and Anelise Bishop, 16, for keeping his emergency under wraps while he recovered.

“They didn’t want you to see me like that. And I didn’t want you to see me like that,” Jamie said during his special. “I want you to see me like this.”

Foxx filmed the Netflix stand-up special in Atlanta in October.

He took to Instagram on Oct. 13 to thank everyone who “showed up and showed out” for his first stand-up special in 18 years — as well as his first performance since the emergency.

“On October 3 fourth and fifth I had an opportunity to tell my side of the story and there was no better place than Atlanta, Georgia,” he wrote in the caption.

“I haven’t been on stage in 18 years but I needed the stage and I needed an audience that was made up of nothing but pure love and that’s what you were,” he added.

This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 10:00 AM.