The stroke happened last year, and this is the first time Jamie Foxx has talked about it (Picture: Lewis/Netflix)
Jamie Foxx has revealed he had a brain bleed that led to a stroke.
In his new Netflix special What Had Happened Was, Jamie, 56, spoke about the mysterious medical emergency that left him fighting for his life last year for the first time.
‘April 11, I was having a bad headache, and I asked my boy for Aspirin. I realized quickly that when you’re in a medical emergency, your boys don’t know what the f**k to do,’ Jamie joked.
‘I don’t remember 20 days,’ the Django Unchained star said, having entered the stage declaring: ‘I’m back!’
On arrival to Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital – just 400 yards away from the theatre he filmed the special in – in April last year a doctor told him that he was having a brain bleed that led to a stroke, and if they didn’t operate on him as soon as possible he would die.
Jamie explained that the doctor told his sister he could make a full recovery, but it was going to be the ‘worst year of his life’ which is why he disappeared from public life.
Jamie pumped up the crowd as he walked on stage (Picture: Cr Parrish Lewis/Netflix)
At the time, he had been filming the spy comedy Back In Action with 90s movie icon Cameron Diaz.
Jamie, who wore a golden locket chain and beige outfit, wiped his eyes as he walked on stage pumping up the crowd and said: ‘You don’t know how good this feels.’
‘It is a mystery,’ he said of the stroke. ‘We still don’t know exactly what happened to me.’
Jamie took a few moments after saying, ‘What had happened was,’ as he sat on a stool and broke down in tears, before the crowd gave him an applause of encouragement to continue with the story.
Before Jamie could get the aspirin from his friends, he went ‘out’, the actor explained, clicking his fingers. Then he lost 20 days.
The crowd whooped for Jamie as he got visibly emotional during the special (Picture: Cr. Parrish Lewis/Netflix ? 2022)
After one doctor didn’t take Jamie seriously, his sister – who he described as 4’11 of pure love – drove him around town ‘aimlessly’ and landed on the Piedmont Hospital.
With tears in his eyes, Jamie continued to explain how his sister knelt down outside the operating room and prayed for her brother.
Recounting what sounds like a near-death experience, Jamie revealed: ‘Your life doesn’t flash before you. It was kind of oddly peaceful.
‘I saw the tunnel, I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel,’ he said, before joking about thinking he was going to hell: ‘S**t am I going to the wrong place?’
He also added, ‘Is that Puffy?’ joking about Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Jamie forgot 20 days of his life after he experienced a brain bleed and stroke (Picture: Joe Maher/Getty Images)
Jamie explained that his family kept him away from the limelight because they – and he – didn’t want the public to see him like ‘that’. He was also dizzy from the stroke, so his head would bob around, and his family thought everyone would ‘meme the f**k’ out of him.
On May 4 Jamie woke up. ‘When I woke up I found myself in a wheelchair,’ he recalled. ‘I couldn’t walk.’
He couldn’t remember why he was in the wheelchair, so asked his friend Dave, who told him he’d had a stroke – something he didn’t initially believe, saying: ‘Jamie Foxx don’t get strokes.’
Crumbling into tears, Jamie continued to explain how he was flown to Chicago for his rehabilitation, where a nurse cared for him.
After initially resisting therapy, Jamie was met by a stern professional called Holly, who told him to cut out the ‘arrogant’ Jamie Foxx act (who doesn’t have strokes and nurses).
Jamie said that God blessed him with money and fame, and when he forgot about God, he ‘blessed [him] with a stroke’.
While he lost lots of physical capabilities, Jamie didn’t let go of his funny. ‘If I could stay funny, I could stay alive,’ he said.
The actor then went on to explain how he did impressions to stay funny, as he reenacted ones of Jay-Z and President Donald Trump.
In the first 15 days the nurses thought they were going to lose Jamie, because his vitals were so high, so they tried to keep him calm.
The one ‘miracle’ thing that kept him calm was his 14-year-old daughter Anelise sneaking into hospital with her guitar, and playing to him. When she played, his vitals went down.
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