Jamie Foxx Says Medical Emergency Started With a ‘Bad Headache’ and Then ‘I Was Gone for 20 Days. I Don’t Remember Anything’
Jamie Foxx has provided the first brief details about the medical emergency that left him hospitalized last year. No official cause has ever been disclosed about the incident, although the Oscar-winning actor recently appeared on video (via People) telling a group in Phoenix, Ariz. that his emergency all started with a “bad headache” in April 2023.
“I asked my boy for an Advil,” Foxx said and then snapped his fingers. “I was gone for 20 days. I don’t remember anything. So they told me — I’m in Atlanta — so they told me my sister and my daughter took me to the first doctor. … They gave me a cortisone shot.”
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Foxx said doctors ultimately told him that “something’s going on up there,” pointing to his head. But he added: “I won’t say it on camera.”
Variety has reached out to Foxx’s representatives for additional comment.
Foxx daughter, Corrine, announced Jamie’s hospitalization on Instagram in a post published April 12, 2023. She wrote at the time: “We wanted to share that my father Jamie Foxx experienced a medical complication yesterday. Luckily due to quick action and great care he is already on his way to recovery. We know how beloved he is and appreciate your prayers. The family asks for privacy during this time.”
At the time of his hospitalization, Foxx was in Atlanta filming the Netflix action comedy “Back in Action” alongside Cameron Diaz. Production on the movie, which is set to stream later this year, continued amid Foxx’s hospitalization. The actor was also temporarily replaced as the host of the Fox game show “Beat Shazam” while he recovered from the emergency.
While he has never disclosed specific details about the emergency, Foxx took to social media last summer to tell his fans that “I went through something I thought I would never, ever go through,” adding, “I know a lot of people were waiting or wanting to hear updates, but to be honest with you, I just didn’t want you to see me like that. I want you to see me laughing, having a good time, partying, cracking a joke, doing a movie, television show. I didn’t want you to see me with tubes running out of me, and trying to figure if I was gonna make it through.”
At the African American Film Critics Association’s Special Achievement Awards luncheon earlier this year, Foxx teased plans to further discuss his medical emergency in some kind of a filmed special.
“Everybody wants to know what happened, and I’m going to tell you what happened. But I’ve gotta do it in my way,” Foxx said at the time. “I’m gonna do it in a funny way. We’re gonna be on the stage. We’re gonna get back to the standup sort of roots.”
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