Jamie Foxx Opens Up About His Stroke: ‘I Was Fighting for My Life’

Learn how to spot the warning signs and lower your risk factors

Rachel Nania,

AARP

Comments

Published December 12, 2024

Jamie Foxx at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA.

Parrish Lewis/Netflix

“You have no idea how good this feels,” Jamie Foxx says as he dances onto the stage in his new Netflix special, What Happened Was…

“I’m back,” the actor and comedian told the audience.

In the 70-minute show, Foxx, 56, opens up about the so-called “mysterious illness” that occurred in the spring of 2023 and took him out of the public eye. What started as a bad headache turned out to be a brain bleed that led to a stroke and a grueling recovery, Foxx told an Atlanta audience in a theater located just a few minutes from the hospital that “put [him] back together again.”

He says there are 20 days he doesn’t remember at all, and many more days spent in a Chicago rehabilitation center where at first he couldn’t walk, talk well, or brush his teeth on his own. “I was fighting for my life,” says an emotional Foxx, who throughout the streaming show acknowledges his family and the health care providers who helped him along the way.

While Foxx doesn’t specify the type of stroke he suffered, he does say that it was the result of a brain bleed. According to the American Heart Association, bleeding in the brain from a ruptured blood vessel is what’s known as a hemorrhagic stroke. These types of strokes make up 13 percent of stroke cases and can be caused by a number of conditions, including high blood pressure, an aneurysm or a head injury.

When a hemorrhagic stroke occurs, leaked blood causes the brain to swell, leading to increased pressure inside the skull that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says can damage brain cells.

The most common type of stroke is known as an ischemic stroke, which happens when something blocks blood flow to the brain. This accounts for the vast majority of stroke cases.

Warning signs of hemorrhagic stroke

Spot Stroke Warning Signs

When it comes to recognizing a stroke, know the mnemonic BE FAST:

B — Balance loss
E — Changes in eyesight or vision
F — Face drooping
A — Arm weakness
S — Speech difficulty
T — Time to call 911

A sudden, severe headache can be a symptom of a hemorrhagic stroke. This headache “is going to be very different than the usual migraine or tension headache,” says Reza John Karimi, M.D., an endovascular and vascular neurosurgeon at Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey. “Some people say it's like getting hit in the head with a hammer, or like a bolt of lightning. It's a headache that has such a rapid onset and is so severe from the get-go.”

If you experience such a headache, immediate medical attention is critical, Karimi says, especially if it’s accompanied by nausea and vomiting.

“Early diagnosis means that we can intervene and determine what the appropriate treatments are before additional damage is done,” says Jeffrey Mai, M.D., a cerebrovascular neurosurgeon at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.

Most Popular

For example, if the bleed is caused by an aneurysm (a weak area of a blood vessel), “we always try to get the aneurysm treated within a few hours of when [a patient] comes to the hospital,” to prevent it from bleeding again and causing more, potentially fatal, damage, Karimi says.

Around 40 to 50 percent of hemorrhagic strokes are due to a ruptured brain aneurysm, Mai says. “And that’s a life-threatening cause of stroke that can be treated.”

According to Cleveland Clinic, symptoms of a hemorrhagic stroke other than a sudden, severe headache can include:

Light sensitivity
Dizziness or vertigo
Trouble understanding or speaking
Slurred or garbled speaking
One-sided weakness or paralysis
Loss of vision, hearing or touch
Neck stiffness
Nausea and vomiting
Seizures
Passing out or fainting
Coma

The location of the brain bleed can affect the symptoms a person experiences, Mai says.

Foxx, who says in his show that the underlying cause of his stroke is unclear, credits his sister for recognizing that something was wrong and driving him to the hospital.

“Personal stories of stroke survival remind us how critical it is to recognize the warning signs and act quickly," Mitchell S.V. Elkind, M.D., chief clinical science officer, stroke neurologist, and past volunteer president of the American Heart Association, said in a statement. "Understanding the symptoms and seeking immediate help are critical to recovery."

Parrish Lewis/Netflix

Recovering from a hemorrhagic stroke

Karimi says the average patient who experiences bleeding in the brain is typically in the hospital for several weeks — “and it is very, very common that they don't remember any of the hospitalization, even if they are talking to you or even if they are looking at you.”

He adds, “Most of my patients who have been hospitalized for a brain bleed tell me that their first memories begin around the time they were in a rehab facility.”

Rehabilitation is an important part of recovery from hemorrhagic stroke, the Cleveland Clinic says, and Mai notes that it can be a long road. Many people need occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy to regain certain skills like balancing, walking and swallowing, and “to get the basic activities of daily living back again,” Karimi says. “Once they get further out, we do other therapies, like cognitive therapy, which focuses on their memory and attention and processing,” he adds.

Foxx, who during his show recounts his time spent in rehabilitation, says despite the circumstances, he maintained his sense of humor while relearning the basic motions of life. “If I can stay funny, I can stay alive,” he tells the audience.

Reduce your stroke risks

While not every stroke is preventable, many are, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and there are several things you can do to reduce your risk of a hemorrhagic stroke, doctors say. A key one is controlling high blood pressure.

The problem with hypertension, or high blood pressure, Karimi says, is that many people don’t know they have it. “There are no symptoms for hypertension. You can walk around with a blood pressure of 180 and maybe you'll feel your heart pounding, maybe you'll feel your pulse a little bit more than usual, but it's silent, and it can go on for months or years.”

A blood pressure reading that’s 130/80 mm Hg or greater is considered high, according to the American Heart Association. Medications and lifestyle changes can help to bring it down.

Other things you can do to reduce your risk of a hemorrhagic stroke, the Cleveland Clinic says, include:

Eating a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy weight
Quitting smoking
Controlling other health conditions you have, like diabetes
Getting plenty of physical activity
Getting routine health checkups

“You have to know your risk factors for stroke,” Karimi says. “You don't want to just find out you had a stroke after the fact. You want to know beforehand that you're at risk for one and you need to lose weight, alter the diet, go on medications for blood pressure, and so forth.”