Jamie Foxx is reflecting on the medical crisis that nearly took his life.
The Oscar winner, 57, revealed last month in his Netflix stand-up special What Had Happened Was… that he had a “brain bleed that led to a stroke” while he was in Atlanta in April 2023.
Speaking with Variety at the Golden Globes 2025 red carpet on Sunday, Jan. 5, Foxx said he’s lucky to be alive.
Asked how scared he was, Foxx replied, “Very scared. Because this doesn’t matter,” he said in an apparent reference to industry awards shows.
“This girl in Atlanta, one of my nurses, shout out to her, I won’t say her name, but she says, ‘Jamie, you’re a 5-percenter.’ I said, ‘What does that mean?’ [She said] ‘Less than 5 percent of people that have what you have walk out of here. But when I saw that it was you, I rolled my sleeves up.”
Parrish Lewis/Netflix
“I said, ‘Well, thank you so much,’” continued Foxx. “She says, ‘Why are you thanking me? You’re not special. I rolled my sleeves up for everybody that comes in here.’ And so when it hits like that and all of the red carpet and the tux and this, come on man. And she said, ‘All of that will get you to that. But right now, you’re a patient and I got to get you right.’ ”
Foxx detailed exactly what happened in the Netflix special, which was nominated for a Golden Globe. “April 11, I was having a bad headache, and I asked my boy for a aspirin. I realized quickly that when you’re in a medical emergency, your boys don’t know what the f— to do. Before I could get the aspirin [clicks his fingers] I went out. I don’t remember 20 days,” he said.
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On April 12, 2023, Foxx’s daughter Corinne revealed in a message on social media that her dad experienced a “medical complication” the day prior while he was in Atlanta, where he was filming the comedy Back in Action with Cameron Diaz.
“Luckily, due to quick action and great care, he is already on his way to recovery,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “We know how beloved he is and appreciate your prayers.”
The Ray actor kept the exact details of his experience private until he taped his stand-up special in October.
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