Jamie Foxx reveals “mystery illness” was a stroke during latest stand-up Netflix special
Jamie Foxx recently discussed the “mystery illness” that he experienced in April 2023, saying that doctors diagnosed him with having a stroke and sharing additional details during his stand-up Netflix special, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…
The actor was hospitalised in April last year with an unnamed “medical complication”, which impacted his physical and mental health and kept him away from the spotlight. Although he hadn’t previously specified his condition, several rumours surfaced about the nature and details of his medical situation.
Choosing to reveal the details “in a funny way”, as he announced during an appearance at the African American Film Critics Association’s Special Achievement Awards luncheon, Foxx opted to reveal his diagnosis during his latest stand-up special as a means of discussing it while getting “back to the stand-up sort of roots.”
In the opening to What Had Happened Was…, in which he was introduced onto the stage by his daughter, Corrine Foxx, the actor revealed he had suffered a stroke that initially left him unable to walk, but he didn’t find out exactly what had happened immediately.
Describing the experience as “a mystery,” he confirmed that he still wasn’t sure “exactly what happened,” but that the first sign something was wrong was a bad headache that left him unconscious. “I was having a bad headache and I asked my boy for an aspirin. Before I could get the aspirin, I went out,” he said, adding, “I don’t remember 20 days.”
Continuing, “What they told me was they took me to the first doctor and they gave me a cortisone shot and sent me home. I don’t know if you can do Yelps for doctors but that’s half a star. My sister said ‘No’. Four foot eleven, and full of nothing but love, she said something’s wrong with my brother.”
The comedian said that his sister then took him to Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital to be put “back together.” It was here that he learned he had suffered from a stroke that left him in a wheelchair. “[The doctor] said ‘He’s having a brain bleed that’s led to a stroke.’ They took me into operate on me… your life doesn’t flash before your face, it was oddly peaceful,” he said.
While he revealed he struggled to believe it at first, saying that strokes are “old man”, he also detailed his experience in rehab afterwards, injecting his signature humour throughout several anecdotes about being nursed back to full health.
Although the actor had already returned to the spotlight previously, acting in projects like Back in Action alongside Cameron Diaz, his latest special shows that he is ready to transform his latest health scare into a positive and continue entertaining audiences in light of the challenges presented during the last couple of years.