Jamie Foxx is poised to candidly discuss the severe health crisis that nearly ended his life last year. His upcoming Netflix special, "Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was...," filmed before a live audience in Atlanta this October, will offer a rare, first-person account of the medical emergency that left him unconscious and hospitalized for weeks beginning in April 2023.
Several audience members who attended the taping, including longtime Foxx supporter Demecos Chambers, have described the gripping narrative Foxx shared onstage. Chambers told Fox News Digital that Foxx said, "His health was failing terribly bad, like Jamie was on the brink of death. His vitals were all down. Everything was going down. It got to the point where the doctors and everybody was telling the family like, 'Look, he might not make it to pull out of this.'" According to Chambers, Foxx emphasized it was "life-threatening" and "it didn't relate to anything with drugs."
At the time of his health scare, Foxx had been in Georgia working on "Back in Action," a Netflix film co-starring Cameron Diaz. Chambers recalled Foxx recounting how he initially believed he had merely passed out momentarily on set, only to awaken in a hospital bed. "He said he woke up in a hospital bed ... like, 'Wow, I must be here for a couple hours.' They was like, 'No Jamie, you've been here for weeks. You were in a coma,'" Chambers said.
Another audience member's account was shared with CNN, similarly recalling Foxx's words during the special's taping. "He spoke about waking up in the hospital. He thought he just passed out for a second, but it was two or three weeks. He was in a stone-cold coma," the attendee said. According to this account, Foxx told the crowd that doctors informed him he had come within mere inches of losing his life altogether: "if he didn't get to the hospital in that moment and the nurse didn't treat him in a certain timeframe, he said he would have died," the attendee told CNN, adding that Foxx described himself as "literally within an inch of his life. He was gone. It was lights out."
Foxx also reportedly spoke about his family's role in his recovery. Chambers told Fox News Digital that one of Foxx's daughters played a guitar at his bedside while he lay in a coma. "And ever since she started doing that, his vitals and everything started to pick up while he's in his coma," Chambers recalled Foxx saying, adding, "They can't explain. Nobody can explain what's going on."
The special, according to Chambers, does not shy away from humor despite the gravity of the ordeal. Foxx referenced the now-deleted hospital selfie he posted at one point during his drug-induced haze, an image that sparked wild rumors online. "He posted a selfie. He's really looking pale ... 'Oh my God, they cloned Jamie Fox. He's White now,'" Chambers said, quoting Foxx's comedic take on the situation.
Foxx's representatives and Netflix have declined to comment on what will appear in the final cut of the special, and the star is not granting interviews before its premiere. The "Ray" and "Django Unchained" actor, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles, has otherwise kept details of his health crisis private.
Earlier glimpses of Foxx's condition emerged last summer, when he spoke briefly to concerned fans outside a Phoenix restaurant. In that exchange, Foxx hinted at how dire his condition had been, saying he'd been "gone for 20 days" and did not "remember anything."
Now, as "Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was..." prepares to debut (on December 10), audiences will finally hear the full story directly from the actor himself.
