Jamie Foxx reveals he suffered stroke last year: “I saw the tunnel”
Jamie Foxx’s has revealed that he suffered a stroke in his new stand-up special What Had Happened Was.
A trailer for the Netflix special was released last week ahead of its release today (December 10).
In April 2023, Foxx was hospitalised after suffering an unspecified health emergency when he was filming his forthcoming Netflix movie Back In Action.
Details about the nature of his medical complication have remained largely unknown ever since, although in July he did say to a group of fans in Phoenix: “April 11 last year, I had a bad headache, asked my boy for an Advil. I was gone for 20 days. I don’t remember anything.”
He continued: “So, I’m in Atlanta, my sister and my daughter took me to the first doctor. He said ‘Nah’, gave me a cortisone shot. Next doctor said, ‘Something’s going on up there.’ I won’t say it on camera.”
Now, he has revealed in the special that he had a bleed on the brain which led to a stroke and was told that if doctors didn’t operate on him as soon as possible, he would die.
Foxx said it “was kind of oddly peaceful” being unconscious, adding: “I saw the tunnel. I didn’t see the light.” He then joked: “It was hot in that tunnel. Shit, am I going to the wrong place in this motherfucker? 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]?”
After the procedure, he explained that the doctor told his sister Deidra Dixon that he “may be able to make a full recovery, but it’s going to be the worst year of his life”. Foxx added: “That’s what it was.”
He continued: “I lost everything, but the only thing I could hold onto was my sense of humour. If I could stay funny, I could stay alive.”
Foxx played three live shows in Atlanta in October, where the special was filmed.
The film Foxx was shooting at the time of the hospitalisation, Back In Action, is set to be released on Netflix on January 17. The spy action comedy co-stars Cameron Diaz in her return to acting after an 11-year retirement.
The post Jamie Foxx reveals he suffered stroke last year: “I saw the tunnel” appeared first on NME.
Damian Jones
NME
