Jamie Foxx admitted he struggled to make sense of his stroke while undergoing physical therapy, calling the whole ordeal “frustrating.”
During a recent appearance on the “Baby, This is Keke Palmer” podcast, the Oscar winner reflected on his health struggle and rehab stay after suffering from a stroke in April 2023.
“Like, I was talking to him,” Foxx recalled while gesturing upwards. “I said, ‘Bro, what are you talking about? It’s me, bro. Like I put the smiles on people’s faces. Why me?’”
Foxx shared that he remembered feeling frustrated that he was struggling while there were “all these bad people out here.”
“And he said, ‘Those bad people already belong to somebody else.’ He said, ‘This is your time.’ And I said, [ugh],” he noted. “You just couldn’t imagine, like when I finally came to my [senses], I said, ‘What happened?’ And they said, ‘You had a stroke.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’”
He added: “I couldn’t make sense of it. And the parts I do remember, like the rehab part, was frustrating ’cause … They said, ‘You got a second chance.’ I said, ‘F–k the second chance. What was wrong with my first chance? This doesn’t happen to anybody. How does it happen to me?’”
Per Foxx, his healthcare team struggled to do “wellness checks” on him, given he utilized comedy to cope at the time.
“So, I was just funny. I was always joking all the time,” he said. “So, when they come and say, ‘Who are you today, sir?’ And I was somebody different.”
Specifically, Foxx shared that he pulled out his Dave Chappelle impression to get through the recovery process.
Foxx’s daughter Corinne confirmed this to be true, sharing her dad also said his name was Denzel Washington when he was admitted to the hospital. Foxx then gave host Keke Palmer a taste of his Washington impression.
All jokes aside, Foxx shared that this humor was the only way he “could find myself” throughout the ordeal.
“Because here’s the truth of it: When this all transpired, I went back to meet the 60 nurses that kept me alive,” he noted. Per Foxx, his healthcare team told him that his recovery was “a miracle,” adding, “It makes you want to go get it.”
Watch Foxx’s comments above.
The “Ray” star previously opened up about his health crisis in his 2024 Netflix comedy special, titled “What Had Happened Was.”
“Before I could get the Aspirin, I went out,” he said in the special. “I don’t remember 20 days, what I was told … was that they [took] me in to operate on me and my sister knelt down outside the operating room and prayed the whole time.”
Prior to this tell-all special, Foxx had shared a video update on Instagram, where he told fans: “I went to hell and back … And my road to recovery had some potholes as well. But I’m coming back. And I’m able to work.”
