Jamie Foxx Health Update: Medical Emergency Started With Headache – TODAY
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Jamie Foxx is opening up about the undisclosed illness that led to a medical emergency and landed him in the hospital in April 2023.
The Oscar winner detailed what happened to him in a video posted by Instagram user Brenda Combs in late June 2024.
Foxx — who did not share the video himself — spoke to a group of people gathered around him at an outdoor location in Phoenix.
In the beginning of the clip, the actor explained that he had experienced a “bad headache” before his health scare.
“I asked my boy for an Advil,” he said before snapping his fingers. “I was gone for 20 days.”
Foxx then explained that a doctor gave him a cortisone shot, referring to an injection that treats inflammatory conditions, swelling, pain and irritation.
“The next doctor said something’s going on up there,” he continued, pointing to his head.
“I won’t say it on camera,” he then said a few times.
TODAY.com reached out to Foxx for comment and has not heard back yet.
Neither Foxx nor anyone close to him has previously provided any public information on what the medical issue was. Earlier this year, the “Ray” star teased the possibility of him explaining what happened to him.
In March 2024, Foxx appeared to be doing well when he attended the African American Film Critics Association’s Special Achievement Awards luncheon. He engaged with the audience, encouraged presenter Tyrese Gibson to sing and even joked about his recent health scare, Variety reported.
“Everybody wants to know what happened, and I’m going to tell you what happened. But I’ve got to do it in my way,” Foxx said, according to Variety. “I’m going to do it in a funny way. We’re going to be on the stage. We’re going to get back to the standup sort of roots.”
“It’ll be called, ‘What Had Happened Was,’ and it’s got all the things that happened, especially on our side of our community,” he added while accepting the producers award alongside his parter Datari Turner.
Foxx also expressed gratitude to be where he is now: “I’m so thankful. And I just get emotional. Because it was really… it’s beyond the scope. Cherish life. I have some people in my life that really made sure I was here because it was dire straits.”
The actor is also doing well enough to return to work. He was photographed on the set of “Back In Action” in January 2024, one of the first times the star had been seen out and about since he experienced an undisclosed medical emergency in April 2023.
In December 2023, Foxx made a surprise appearance at the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievement, his first since the incident.
“I want to say thank you so much. I want to say, six months ago I couldn’t fathom that this could happen or that I would be here, but as I walk up here to this microphone and get this Vanguard Award, all I can say is Lord, have mercy, Jesus,” Foxx said at the time.
Foxx thanked people who had supported him throughout his ordeal, and admitted he was “trying not to make eye contact with people because I’m just going to explode up here.”
He also said that his health scare had given him a new outlook on life and his work.
“I have a new respect for life, I have a new respect for my art,” he said. “I watched so many movies and listened to so many songs, trying to have the time go by. Don’t give up on your art, man. Don’t give up on your art.”
In May 2023, one month after he had been hospitalized, it was announced that he would be co-hosting a new music game show called “We Are Family.” In July, he shared on Instagram that “BIG things (were) coming soon.”
In April 2023, Foxx was hospitalized in Atlanta after experiencing a “medical complication,” his daughter, Corinne Foxx, shared in a statement at the time. He was then working on the film “Back in Action” alongside Glenn Close and Cameron Diaz.
The actor’s representative confirmed to NBC News via email at the time that Foxx’s “condition was serious enough that Jamie’s family, some of whom were not in town, came to the hospital.”
In May 2023, Corinne Foxx shared that her father had been out of the hospital “for weeks” and was at home recuperating. “In fact, he was playing pickleball yesterday! Thanks for everyone’s prayers and support!” she said at the time.
In July 2023, Foxx updated his followers about his hospitalization in an emotional Instagram video.
“I cannot even begin to tell you how far it took me and how it brought me back,” he said. “I went through something that I thought I would never ever go through. 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 (or) television show. I didn’t want you to see me with tubes running out of me and trying to figure out if I was going to make it through,” he continued.
He also opened up about feeling emotional following his health ordeal.
“If you see me out from now on and every once in a while, I just burst into tears, it’s because it’s been tough, man,” he said. “I’ve been sick, man. But now, I’ve got my legs under me, so you’re going to see me out.”
The next month, in August 2023, he shared another update on Instagram. It included a picture of himself and alongside it, he wrote, “You’re lookin 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.”
“I’m thankful to everyone that reached out and sent well wishes and prayers,” he continued. “I have a lot of people to thank… u just don’t know how much it meant… I will be thanking all of you personally… and if you didn’t know… GOD IS GOOD… all day every day.”
Lindsay Lowe has been a regular contributor to TODAY.com since 2016, covering pop culture, style, home and other lifestyle topics. She is also working on her first novel, a domestic drama set in rural Regency England.
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