Jamie Foxx suffered a stroke caused by a bleed on the brain. The Django Unchained actor was hospitalised in April last year after suffering a mystery “medical complication”, which his family decided to keep private.
Foxx has now revealed exactly what happened to him and recalled losing his memory for 20 days amid his terrifying health battle.
He quipped on his Netflix special Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was….: “On April 11, I was having a bad headache, and I asked my boy for Aspirin. I realised quickly that when you’re in a medical emergency, your boys don’t know what the f*** to do.”
He added: “I don’t remember 20 days.”
The teary-eyed star admitted to the audience after declaring he was “back”: “You don’t know how good this feels.”
The 56-year-old star insists it’s still “a mystery” what happened.
“We still don’t know exactly what happened to me.”
After starting his sentence with “What had happened was,” Foxx broke down in tears and was comforted by the applauding audience.
He then said: “Your life doesn’t flash before you. It was kind of oddly peaceful.
“I saw the tunnel, but I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel.”
He quipped: “S***, am I going to the wrong place?”
The actor credits his sister Deidra with “saving [his] life” after she “aimlessly” drove him around before taking him to Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital, where he underwent a life-saving procedure.
Addressing why his family wanted to keep details of his health scare to themselves, he said: “I was dizzy from the stroke, so my head would bob around, and my family thought everyone would meme the f***’ out of me.”
Foxx vividly remembers waking up on May 4, and being unable to walk.
He recalled: “When I woke up, I found myself in a wheelchair. I couldn’t walk.”
He didn’t want to believe he’d had a stroke and recounted his therapist telling him about his ego: “You need to kill the old Jamie so the new Jamie can thrive.”
Foxx also reflected: “God blessed me with money and fame, but when I forgot about God, He blessed me with a stroke.”