Jamie Foxx is back, and like most Black people, he’s starting his story with the popular phrase “what had happened was.” In his new Netflix comedy special, the Academy Award-winning entertainer got emotional as he discussed the “mystery illness” that caused his health scare in April 2023.
“Please, Lord, let me get through this,” Foxx said, holding back tears, per Variety. “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*** to do.”
Before he could even take the aspirin, the actor recalls blacking out and being unconscious for weeks. Though he reports not remembering those 20 days that year, his friends and family remember an Atlanta doctor being particularly dismissive of the star’s health concerns. However, his sister Diedra Dixon who he says is “4-foot-11 of nothing but pure love,” suspected something was wrong and advocated for her brother.
“[Diedra] says, ‘Get him in the car. That ain’t my brother right there,’” Foxx recalled. “She drove around — she didn’t know anything about Piedmont Hospital, but she had a hunch that some angels [were] in there.”
It was the doctors at Piedmont who discovered Foxx was experiencing a brain bleed that led to what could have been a fatal stroke if they did not operate. While Foxx’s sister knelt outside the operating room in prayer, the “Blame It” singer says it “was kind of oddly peaceful” being unconscious.
“I saw the tunnel. I didn’t see the light.” Foxx then joked, “It was hot in that tunnel. Sh*t, am I going to the wrong place in this motherf*cker? Because I looked at the end of the tunnel, and I thought I saw the Devil like, ‘C’mon.’ Or is that Puffy [Sean Combs]?”
Following the procedure, the doctor informed his sister that Foxx “may be able to make a full recovery, but it’s going to be the worst year of his life,” which Fox confirmed, “That’s what it was.”
Throughout his recovery, Foxx explained that Dixon and his daughter, Corinne Marie Foxx, “cut it all off” to shield him from the public eye. “They didn’t want you to see me like that. And I didn’t want you to see me like that,” Foxx said, his voice breaking. “I want you to see me like this.”
Recovery was a long and tough journey for the entertainer. When he fully regained consciousness at a Chicago rehabilitation center on May 4, Foxx was reportedly confused to find himself in a wheelchair. And despite being told what had happened, he struggled to accept that he had suffered a stroke. Sharing more about his road to recovery, Foxx revealed his initial reluctance to let a nurse bathe him—until she revealed she had been doing so for weeks without his knowledge.
“I couldn’t wipe my own ass,” Foxx admitted. “I lost everything, but the only thing I could hold onto was my sense of humor,” he said, emphasizing his mantra, “If I could stay funny, I could stay alive.”
Just as he didn’t want fans to see him in that state, Foxx explained how he didn’t want his children, especially his youngest daughter, 14-year-old Anelise Bishop, to see him in the hospital. Despite his wishes, he says she snuck into his hospital room with her guitar to play her father some music. At the time, doctors thought the star was going to die due to his high vitals however, when Bishop played her guitar Foxx says his vitals decreased.
“It was God in that guitar,” Foxx said of the miraculous moment. “That’s my spiritual defibrillator.”
As he recalled his hospitalization, the comedian quipped about the stress Black family members cause during medical emergencies and the internet’s conspiracy theories about his health.
“Y’all motherf***ers really thought I was a clone,” he joked, also noting how God gave him a second chance.
Ultimately, Foxx is thankful for his body and his soul.
“You’re lookin’ at a man who is thankful,” he said, as previously reported by theGrio. “It’s been an unexpected dark journey, but I can see the light… I’m thankful to everyone [who] reached out and sent well wishes and prayers… I have a lot of people to thank… u just don’t know how much it meant… I will be thanking all of you personally… and if you didn’t know… GOD IS GOOD… all day, every day.”
Jamie Foxx’s “What Had Happened Was” is now streaming on Netflix.
