Washington:
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jamie Foxx has now revealed the facts about his six-month absence from the spotlight due to the health emergency in April 2023.
At the time, Fox was hospitalized due to an undisclosed medical complication, after which few details were shared to explain what happened to the Oscar-winning actor.
Fox’s Netflix comedy special, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…, is more bombastic than its title suggests. (He even received an early 2025 Golden Globe nomination for the special.) Foxx explains that using entertainment, music, and serious truths to tell the truth about his treatment and rehabilitation process, his What happened to him to the best of memory.
For the show, he returned to Atlanta, where he became ill while shooting the Netflix comedy Back in Action, which also stars Cameron Diaz. He also revealed that Atlanta is where he started his comic career in 1991. So he’s getting back to basics, describing how he saved his life from death as a moment of “coming back to God.”
The special begins with video of fans speculating about Fox’s illness. After this his daughter Corinne Fox comes on stage and thanks the audience for coming. “This is a special moment for me and my family. It’s a blessing to even be here,” she says before excitedly introducing her father, “Give it up for my dad, the real Jamie motherfucking Fox.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the curtain rises and Fox is wearing shades across his chest and expressing his love to the crowd with hand-held heart emojis.
“You have no idea how good this feels,” he said, enjoying the moment, shouting “Atlanta, I’m back” and dancing through tears. “I was fighting for my life, but I’m here in front of you.” When he said, “Atlanta, saved my life,” the crowd responded by chanting, “God is good” and “All the time.”
This exchange is a hallmark of his black, Southern roots and he is right at home.
Fox further shared, “We still don’t know what happened to me” just over six minutes into the special. Recalling what happened to him on April 11, 2023, he said, “What happened…” and explained how it all started with a severe headache.
“I don’t remember 20 days,” he said. His story is sympathetic because at first the doctor rejected his illness. But his sister Deidra Dixon noticed he wasn’t himself and drove him around looking for hospitals, until they decided to stop at Piedmont in Atlanta, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
There, a doctor wearing an LA Lakers jersey told him that his older brother was having a “bleeding in the brain”, which led to a stroke, and that he needed immediate surgery. Jamie Foxx shared how his sister helped him, saying “sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying” and that’s exactly what he does as he gives the sign of dying and coming back.
What he describes is harrowing. The doctor told his sister that he might fully recover from the stroke, but that it was going to be “the worst year of his life.” He says that’s why he disappeared from the public eye and credits his family for protecting him during his recovery. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he woke up on May 4 to find himself in a wheelchair and no idea why.
His situation was difficult to accept, as he admits that throughout his stay in Chicago he had at first allowed his ego to hinder his significant improvement.. “That’s old man’s stuff,” he says. Asks to know how serious his condition was. He portrays the difficult road ahead, while at first he wanted to keep his “pickle” a secret from his female nurse, but later learned that she had been nursing him for a month and a half, and had to train him. Gives credit to a superwoman named Holly. Karate Kid-style, to find his will to fight.
Eventually he saw a psychiatrist, which led to deep conversations with God. During that exchange, he said it took him a minute to change his attitude and fight back. To do this, he turned to the only way he could heal: humor.
“If I can stay funny, I can stay alive” became his mantra.
Dipping into his humor, he impersonates Denzel Washington, Dave Chappelle, Mike Tyson, Jay-Z, and even President-elect Donald Trump. It is a unique blend of pop culture, old and new, to give personal testimony of illness and healing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… is now streaming on Netflix.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
