"I don't remember 20 days": Jamie Foxx opens up about near-fatal brain bleed and stroke

“It is a mystery. We still don’t know exactly what happened to me"

By Nardos Haile

Staff Writer

Published December 10, 2024 12:01PM (EST)

US actor Jamie Foxx speaks during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 15th Annual Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on November 17, 2024. (ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
US actor Jamie Foxx speaks during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 15th Annual Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on November 17, 2024. (ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)

Jamie Foxx is ready to open up about the medical emergency he experienced last year that left him hospitalized for more than a month.

In a new Netflix special released Tuesday called “Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was," the Oscar-winning actor discussed his brain bleed that led to a stroke, CNN reported. Last year, Foxx was hospitalized for having an undisclosed health crisis while he was filming a movie in Atlanta. His daughter, Corrine Foxx posted a statement sharing that her father had "medical complications" and asked people to keep him in their thoughts as he recovered.

“It is a mystery. We still don’t know exactly what happened to me," he said in the special.

“April 11, I was having a bad headache and I asked my boy for an aspirin. And I realized quickly that when you’re in a medical emergency, your boys don’t know what the f**k to do,” he said. “Before I could get the aspirin I went out. I don’t remember 20 days.”

When the actor's family admitted him to a hospital, a doctor said he was having a brain bleed that had led to a stroke and that he would die without surgery. Following the operation, Foxx was told that he might make a full recovery "but it’s going to be the worst year of his life."

After the immediate aftermath of the stroke and surgery, Foxx's family kept him out of the public eye so he could continue his recovery. The actor would soon go on to do rehab where he would make a full recovery. In a 2023 health update, the star told his followers, “You’re looking at a man who is thankful . . . finally startin’ to feel like myself . . . It’s been an unexpected dark journey . . . but I can see the light.”

“Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was" is now available to stream on Netflix


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