Jamie Foxx opens up about 'medical complication' in new comedy special

(KTLA) — Jamie Foxx is opening up about the "medical complication" he suffered in April 2023.

While filming "Back in Action" in Atlanta, Foxx suffered a health emergency. Details were initially limited but earlier this year, Foxx divulged some details about the incident, saying it left him unable to walk and kept him out of the public eye for several months.

In his new Netflix comedy special, “Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…", Foxx provided more details while sitting in a chair onstage holding back tears.

Foxx revealed that his terrifying experience began when he had a "bad headache" and didn't remember anything for 20 days.

He credited his sister, Deidre Dixon, for noticing something wasn't right and drove him to Piedmont Hospital. There, a doctor, donning a Los Angeles Lakers jersey, told Dixon that her brother had a "brain bleed that led to a stroke" and if he didn't "go into his head," they were going to "lose him."

Being the comedian, Foxx broke up the seriousness of the moment by adding his sister's response.

"You can go in his head but you ain't gonna find nothin'," he quipped quoting Dixon.

Following the surgery, Foxx's sister was told by doctors that they didn't find the source of the bleed, "but he is having a stroke. He may be able to make a full recovery but it’s going to be the worst year of his life," which is why he kept the matter private.

He revealed that when he finally came to in May, he was in a wheelchair.

“I was like, ‘Why the f--k am I in a wheelchair?’ I’m just coming out of s--t," he explained. He then claimed it felt “like a f–king prank.”

Foxx took up rehab in Chicago where he admitted that he was getting in his own way by brushing off the stroke as "old man stuff."

However, some of the staff gave him the tough love he needed.

"'That stroke doesn't give a f--k about Jamie Foxx,'" he recalled his therapist telling him. "There are people who won't get out of here."

The 56-year-old credited his family and friends for helping him get through the harrowing experience. He mentioned how his 14-year-old daughter Anelise would play guitar at his bedside, which helped keep his vital signs down. He called it his "spiritual defibrillator." Moments later, Anelise joined her dad onstage for a duet.

Foxx said during the procedure he didn't "see the light" but he "saw the tunnel."

“It was hot in that tunnel. S--t, am I going to the wrong place in this motherf–-er? Because I looked at the end of the tunnel, and I thought I saw the devil, like, ‘Come on.’”

He then joked, wondering if it was "the devil" or was it "Puffy," referencing Sean "Diddy" Combs.

During the standup routine, he addressed rumors that the Bad Boy Records founder had something to do with his hospitalization.

“The internet said that Puffy tried to kill me, that’s what the internet was saying,” he explained. “I know what you thinkin’…. did-he?” He then clarified that he left those well-known Diddy parties "early" and that he was "out by nine.”

“Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…” is now streaming on Netflix.