The actor shared more details about the illness that landed him in the hospital last April
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Jamie Foxx is sharing more details about the mystery illness that landed him in the hospital last April.
The actor, 56, talked about the early days of his health scare in a video shared on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, by The Art of the Dialogue.
“Look, April 11th last year,” Foxx tells a group of people gathered around him at an outdoor café in Phoenix, “Bad headache. I asked my boy for an Advil.”
He snaps his fingers.
“I was gone for 20 days,” Foxx said. “I don’t remember anything.”
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“So they told me — I’m in Atlanta — so they told me my sister and my daughter took me to the first doctor,” Foxx said of his sister, Deidra Dixon, and daughter, Corinne Foxx.
“They gave me a cortisone shot,” he tells the woman next to him. (A cortisone injection, the Mayo Clinic explains, is used to “relieve pain, swelling and irritation.”)
He continued: “The next doctor said something’s going on up there,” pointing to his head.
“I won’t say it on camera,” the Academy Award winner said, earning laughs from the crowd.
“But it was…” he trailed off, shrugging, as the video ended.
Foxx has previously said his sister Deidra saved his life during his health crisis, sharing an Instagram post that said, “without you I would not be here … had you not made the decisions that you made I would’ve lost my life.”
The actor, who recently returned to the FOX competition Beat Shazam after his illness caused him to sit out for season 6, has also teased a return to stand-up comedy where he says he’ll address what happened.
In February, Foxx referenced his health scare, saying, “Going to get on somebody’s stage somewhere near you. I got some jokes, and a story to tell….”
Jamie Foxx Says Medical Emergency Started With a ‘Bad Headache’ and Then ‘I Was Gone for 20 Days. I Don’t Remember Anything’
The actor shared more details about the illness that landed him in the hospital last April
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.”
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.”
Jamie Foxx was spotted in downtown Phoenix, where he told a small group of people that on April 11th, 2023, he had a bad headache, asked a friend for an Advil, and then woke up 20 days later with no memory of what happened. pic.twitter.com/wIhuvN9hCC
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) July 1, 2024
Garcelle Beauvais Describes Seeing Friend Jamie Foxx After Health Scare
Garcelle Beauvais Describes Seeing Friend Jamie Foxx After Health Scare
Garcelle Beauvais was thrilled to see her good friend Jamie Foxx looking happy and healthy at his daughter’s “beautiful” wedding. It was the first time the two longtime friends had seen each other since his 2023 health scare.
“I got to give him the biggest hug,” Garcelle said of seeing her close friend again. “We held each other for so long. It was my first time seeing him, and he looked great.”
Jamie Foxx’s “medical complication” laid him low for several months
Details about the Oscar winner were kept private during his month-long stay in the hospital. Nevertheless, his many celebrity friends, including Garcelle, sent well wishes for a speedy recovery.
“J, I love you so much!!! I want & need you to get better soon [praying hands] sending you light love and prayers,” Garcelle wrote at the time, sharing a photo of the two of them.
In August 2023, Jamie assured his fans that he was on the mend. “It’s been an unexpected dark journey, but I can see the light,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’m thankful to everyone that reached out and sent well wishes and prayers.”
Though Jamie never disclosed the nature of his illness, he plans to discuss it in his upcoming stand-up show, “What Had Happened Was.” He resumed filming in January 2024.
Garcelle and Jamie’s friendship goes back almost 30 years
For years, Jamie joked about his flirty relationship with Garcelle. They first worked together on the Jamie Foxx Show from 1996 to 2001. Then they reunited for the 2013 film White House Down.
During a September 2020 episode of her Going to Bed with Garcelle podcast, she joked with Jamie that he never gave any of her potential boyfriends “any real attention.”
“I hate them all,” Jamie playfully responded. “I think me and you should have been together. So every time I see them, I’m like, ‘Damn. I f*cked up.’”
For her part, Garcelle was married twice, first to Daniel Saunders (1991-2000) and later to Michael Nilon (2001-2011). She has three sons, Oliver (with Saunders) and 16-year-old twins Jax and Jaid (with Nilon).
“It’s tough,” she says now of dating. “People feel like they’re disposable now, and you can swipe left and right. I mean, it’s just a different time.”
Though she has no plans to find love on a dating show, she hasn’t totally ruled it out. “I don’t know if I want to do my personal life on television,” she shared. “If I meet someone, and I’m still on Real Housewives, sure. But to actually go and do that, I don’t think so.”
But on second thought, the Black Girl Missing star and executive producer Garcelle joked, “Maybe Love Is Blind, if they did a celebrity version.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is now streaming on Peacock.
