Almost two years after making headlines for his health, the Oscar and Grammy winner Jamie Foxx revealed that he suffered a debilitating stroke that nearly took his life.
“You don’t know how good it feels,” he says at the beginning of his special Netflix, What Had Happened Was…which premiered on Tuesday. “You have no idea, Atlanta. You all saved my life, just 400 yards from here, at Piedmont Hospital. “They put me back together.”
What follows is an account of the events that led to a discouraging diagnosis.
Jamie Foxx told what the days were like when he was on the verge of death
“On April 11, I had a bad headache and I asked my son for aspirin,” Fox recalls humorously during his special. “And I realized quickly that when you’re in a medical emergency, your kids don’t know what the fuck to do… Before I could get the aspirin,” he snaps his fingers, “I walked out. I don’t remember that 20 days passed. What they told me was that they took me to the first doctor, and that doctor just gave me a cortisone shot and sent me home. Now, I don’t know if you can search for doctors on Yelps, man, but that’s a half star, n—a.”
His sister, however, remained convinced that he was suffering from a serious medical problem: “Standing six feet two inches tall and full of pure love, she told me, ‘There’s something wrong with my brother.’ He came to see me and they told me he was lethargic. He told me: ‘Put him in the car. That’s not my brother.”
She took him to Piedmont Hospital, where doctors told her that “He was suffering from a brain hemorrhage that had caused a stroke.”. He underwent a life-saving procedure and then woke up on May 4. He was confined to a wheelchair and had no idea why.
What followed was the worst year of his life. His ego, he says, almost cost him his recovery.
“I lost everything,” says Foxx, “and the only thing I kept was my sense of humor.”. He said to himself, “If I could stay funny, I could stay alive.”
When Foxx was first hospitalized in the spring of 2023, his family decided not to reveal the nature of his health complications. Three months later, he made his first official statement on Instagram that sought to debunk rumors that he was paralyzed or blind.
“I went through hell and back and my road to recovery had some bumps as well,” Foxx said at the time. “But I’m coming back and I can work”. He also explained why fans hadn’t heard from him since his initial hospitalization, adding, “I know a lot of people were waiting or wanting to hear updates, but to be honest with you, I just don’t want to be seen like that… I want them to see me laughing, having a good time, partying, telling a joke, making a movie, a television show.. “I didn’t want them to see me with tubes coming out of me and trying to figure out if I was going to make it through.”
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
