Jamie Foxx Reveals “Mystery Illness” in Netflix Special
[This story contains spoilers from Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…]
Jamie Foxx is finally sharing details of his six month disappearance from the spotlight due to a health emergency back in April 2023. At the time, Foxx was hospitalized for an undisclosed medical complication, with few details shared since to explain what happened to the Oscar-winning actor. In his new Netflix special, now streaming, Foxx reveals that he had a brain bleed that led to a stroke, followed by an arduous recovery.
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Though titled Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… on Netflix and labeled a comedy special, Foxx’s reveal is bigger than its billing. (He even picked up an early 2025 Golden Globe nomination for the special.) Through a mixture of laughter, music and sobering truth, Foxx explains what happened to him to the best of his recollection, getting candid about his rehab and recovery process. For the special he returned to Atlanta, which is where he suddenly fell ill while filming the Netflix comedy Back in Action also starring Cameron Diaz. Atlanta, he reveals, is also where he started doing comedy back in 1991. So he is very much getting back to basics, classifying how he snatched his life back from death as a “come-back-to-God” moment.
The special begins with videos of fans speculating about Foxx’s illness. His daughter Corinne Foxx then takes the stage to thank the audience for coming. “This is a special moment for me and my family. It is a blessing to even be here,” she says, before introducing her dad with a rousing, “Give it up for my dad, the real Jamie Motherfucking Foxx.” The curtain rises and there is Foxx with shades on and hands in heart emojis over his chest expressing his love for the crowd.
Foxx walks out with a fist raised and the audience frantically cheers his return. It’s so emotional, he wipes away tears. “You have no idea how good this feels,” he says as he basks in the moment, shouting “Atlanta, I’m back” and dancing between tears. “I was fighting for my life, but I’m here in front of you.” When he says, “Atlanta, saved my life,” the crowd responds to his “God is good” and “all the time.” The exchange is a recognition of his Black, Southern roots and that he is right at home.
“The internet tried to kill me, though,” he continues, in the moment that would go on to spawn headlines about the special around Foxx and Sean “Diddy” Combs. “They said I was paralyzed. They said I couldn’t walk. Well, look at me now,” he says, as he dances to Unk’s “Walk it Out.” He then refers to the unsubstantiated online rumors that Diddy was involved in his hospitalization. “The internet said that Puffy tried to kill me, that’s what the internet was saying,” he says. “I know what you thinkin’…. did-he?” He also adds a reference to Diddy’s now-infamous and so-called “freak-off” parties: “I left them parties early… I was out by nine.”
Foxx soon changes to a more serious tone as he shares that “we still don’t know what happened to me” a little over six minutes into the special. Recounting what he knows about what happened to him on April 11, 2023, he turns somber, again growing emotional as he sits down to say, “What had happened was…” and explains how it all began with him having a very bad headache.
“I don’t remember 20 days,” he says. His retelling is relatable in that the first doctor dismissed his illness. But his sister, Deidra Dixon, knew he was not himself and drove him around looking for hospitals until she decided to stop at Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital.
There, a doctor wearing a L.A. Lakers jersey let her know that her big brother was having a brain bleed that led to a stroke and that he needed immediate surgery. Needless to say, the comedy pauses here. But it’s Jamie Foxx so, as he talks of his sister saving his life, he says “sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying” and he does just that as he alludes to dying and coming back. (He makes another Diddy joke, saying the devil “or perhaps Puffy” was waiting for him at the end of the tunnel.)
What he describes is harrowing. The doctor told his sister that he may make a full recovery from the stroke, but it’s going to be the “worst year of his life.” He says that’s why he disappeared from public view, and credits his family for protecting him during his recovery. On May 4, he woke up and found himself in a wheelchair and had no idea why.
Accepting his condition wasn’t easy, as he admits to initially letting his ego get in the way of his recovery, which was substantial, during his stay in Chicago. “That’s old man stuff,” he says of learning how dire his condition was. He depicts the hard road ahead, while at first joking about wanting to keep his “pickle” private from his female nurse before finding out she had already been bathing him for a month and a half, and crediting a superwoman named Holly for coaching him, Karate Kid-style, to find his will to fight.
Eventually he saw a psychiatrist, which led him to deep conversations with God. In that exchange, he admits it took a minute to adjust his attitude and fight back. To do so, he took the only route he knew how to get well, and that’s humor.
“If I can stay funny, I can stay alive” became his mantra.
Leaning into his humor, he impersonates Denzel Washington, Dave Chappelle, Mike Tyson, Jay-Z and even President-elect Donald Trump. It’s a unique blend of pop culture, old and new, to deliver a personal testimony of sickness and healing.
Looking back, he says of his vitals that they feared he would die in the first 15 days. He credits his turnaround to his teenage daughter Anelise sneaking into his hospital room and playing her guitar, and she then takes the stage to play her guitar to the audience’s delight and father’s cheering. Foxx shares his personal testimony in a speaking song, magnifying the power and grace of God during his illness.
Resuming the humor portion of his show, he recounts some post-recovery encounters with rapper T.I. and Halle Berry, and goes through his memorable roles from Any Given Sunday, Ali, Ray, Django and even Rio before launching into his own hit songs as a singer. For his finale, he returns to the piano to share a tailor-made testimony about his “second chance,” including Foxx having to debunk rumors that he was “cloned” when spotted during his recovery, before returning to a spirit of gratitude.
That spirit of thanks dominates in the Netflix special. Billing this as a “comedy special” doesn’t seem quite right for the show, which is more akin to LeBron James The Decision, when he left Cleveland for Miami, only more entertaining. While it’s raw and at times uneven, there is great potential for a one-man show, perhaps on Broadway, should Foxx ever want to revisit this difficult and perhaps defining moment. For now, however, this special offers insight that no daytime TV or late night talk show rounds ever could.
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Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… is now streaming on Netflix.
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