In a Netflix comedy special that aired on December 10, 2024, Foxx shared that a stroke was the cause of his 20-day blackout.
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In the Netflix special, Foxx said he blacked out for 20 days in April 2023 after getting a bad headache.
Foxx said he was later told what happened during those 20 days, though he didn’t specify who told him.
Foxx said he was initially taken to a doctor who gave him a cortisone shot and sent him home, then his sister, Dixon, drove him to Piedmondt hospital in Atlanta.
The doctor, whom he called doctor Schuette, told Dixon that Foxx had a stroke and needed to be operated on right away.
“My sister knelt down outside the operating room and prayed the whole time,” Foxx said.
Foxx said that he felt “peaceful” when he was unconscious.
“I saw the tunnel. I didn’t see the light.” Foxx said. “It was hot in that tunnel. Shit, am I going to the wrong place in this motherfucker?”
He said the doctor later told Dixon that they couldn’t find where he was bleeding in his brain but he may be able to make a full recovery.
“It’s going to be the worst year of his life,” Foxx said the doctor told his sister.
During the first 15 days of recovery, the doctors thought he was going to die because his vitals were too high and he needed to be kept calm, he said.
Foxx said his youngest daughter, Anelise Bishop, snuck into his hospital with her guitar and started playing music, which helped Foxx’s vitals go down.
“It was God in that guitar,” Foxx said. “That’s my spiritual defibrillator.”
Later on during the special, Foxx said he woke up on May 4, 2023 in a wheelchair and refused to believe he had a stroke.
“Jamie Foxx don’t get strokes,” Foxx recalled. “That’s old man shit.”
While strokes are more common in older people, a study published by the CDC earlier this year found that strokes in people under 65 have increased by 15% in the US from 2011-2013 to 2020 – 2022.
Foxx said it took time for him to come to terms with his condition and work on getting better.
