Jamie Foxx Says He Had a 'Brain Bleed That Led to a Stroke' in New Netflix Special: 'I Don't Remember 20 Days'

• Jamie Foxx opens up about his April 2023 ER in his new Netflix comedy special Jamie Foxx: What happened is…
• The Oscar winner revealed how a doctor in Atlanta told his sister Deidra Dixon that he had suffered a “bleeding on the brain that led to a stroke” and that he would die if he didn’t have surgery soon
• Foxx also recalled how he “woke up” on May 4, 2023, and “found himself in a wheelchair.”

Jamie Foxx has confirmed that he suffered a stroke that nearly killed him.

The Oscar winner, 56, revealed the medical emergency he suffered in April 2023 while filming his Netflix movie in Atlanta. Back in action was a “brain bleed that led to a stroke” during his comedy special Jamie Foxx: What happened is…now streaming on Netflix.

While recounting the incident, Foxx became emotional and wiped tears from his eyes as he told the audience, “Please, God, let me get through this.”

“11. April, I had a bad headache and asked my boy for some aspirin. I quickly realized that when you’re in a medical emergency, your guys don’t know what the hell to do,” Foxx began, before adding, “Before I could get the aspirin [clicks his fingers] I went out. I don’t remember 20 days.”

Foxx went on to explain that his friends took him to a doctor in Atlanta who gave him a cortisone shot and then “sent me home,” but it was his sister Deidra Dixon who “knew something was wrong” and said, ” “It’s not ‘not my brother there’.”

What the fuck is that?” Foxx joked about the shooting and being sent home. “I don’t know if you can do Yelps for doctors, but that’s half a star.”

Jamie Foxx entered Jamie Foxx: What happened is… on Netflix.

Parrish Lewis/Netflix

Jamie Foxx reveals the daily mantra he lives by after surviving the ‘darkness’ of his medical emergency

The actor said Dixon was driving him around Atlanta and came across Piedmont Hospital, which Foxx told the audience was “only 400 yards away” from where the special was filmed. “You saved my life just 400 meters from here at Piedmont Hospital. They put me back together,” he said.

“She didn’t know anything about Piedmont Hospital, but she had a hunch they were some angels [were] inside,” he added.

In Piedmont, Foxx said the doctor told Dixon “some terrible news about her older brother. He said, ‘He’s got a brain bleed that led to a stroke,’ ” and that if he didn’t operate as soon as possible he would die.

“If I don’t get inside his head now, we’re going to lose him,” Foxx recalled his sister being told, adding that she was “on her knees outside the operating room and praying the whole time.”

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“Your life doesn’t flash in front of your face. It was kind of strangely calm,” Foxx said of the blackout, adding, “I saw a tunnel. I didn’t see a light. I was in that tunnel though. It was hot in that tunnel. S– -, am I going to the wrong place in this mother—–? Because I looked at the end of the tunnel, and I thought I saw the devil like, ‘Come on.’ ”

The singer said the doctor told his sister about his emergency room: “We haven’t found out where it’s coming from, but he’s having a stroke. He might be able to make a full recovery, but it’s going to be the worst year of his life.” That’s what Atlanta is. You finally got the story. You saved my life.”

He also became emotional when he recalled the discovery that he was in a wheelchair. “I don’t remember 20 days, but I woke up on May 4 [clicks fingers]and when I woke up I found myself in a wheelchair. I couldn’t walk, in a wheelchair, and I asked myself, ‘Why the hell am I in a wheelchair?’ I’m just getting out of the s—.”

Foxx then recounted how his friend Dave told him he had had a stroke and said, “‘And don’t try to get out of that chair because you can’t walk.’ ”

The star then repeated his attempt to get up from his wheelchair on stage, but admitted he couldn’t and told his friend it must be a “terrible joke”. “Jamie Foxx is not having a stroke,” he added.

He then tearfully recalled saying at that point, “Stop this fucking joke.”

Foxx has otherwise remained tight-lipped about what sent him to the hospital, sharing few details in the past, such as how he suffered a “severe headache” and was “out for 20 days.”

Demecos Chambers, who attended the taping of Foxx’s special in Atlanta in October, told PEOPLE that the actor revealed during the show that he was “literally seconds and moments away from death” when he passed out on April 11, 2023.

“It was just pure exhaustion. His body was just worn out because he was getting older and his body was just falling on him,” Chambers recalled Foxx saying on stage.

The actor was in Georgia at the time working on a film Back in action with actors including Cameron Diaz and Glenn Close, but he did not crash on the film set.

“When he passed out, he thought he was only out for a few moments,” Chambers told PEOPLE. “He basically passed out in the elevator and thought he woke up a few hours later. Well, he was actually in a coma and didn’t wake up until a few weeks later.”

Chambers said that while Foxx – who is father to daughters Corinne, 30, and Anelise, 16 – was in a coma, one of the girls was strumming the guitar for him.

“Every day he plays one of their favorite songs or whatever. And he said that’s the only thing he remembers hearing in his dream, and it basically brought him out of the coma,” Chambers explained.

Jamie Foxx and his sister Deidra Dixon.

Alexander Tamargo/Getty

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After waking up, Ray the actor “went to rehab and talked about how he had to get his motor skills going from day one,” Chambers said.

In October, Foxx took to Instagram to share what it was like to share the details of the emotional health scare on stage for the special.

“My heart and my soul are filled with nothing but pure joy” after he “had the opportunity to tell his side of the story” at the gig, he said.

“I have to thank you, Atlanta, you showed up and showed yourself, I haven’t been on stage in 18 years, but I needed a stage and I needed an audience of nothing but pure love, and that was you,” he added in the post.

Jamie Foxx: What happened is… streaming on Netflix

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