Jamie Foxx has publicly addressed persistent conspiracy theories that accused Sean "Diddy" Combs of orchestrating the actor's near-fatal 2023 medical emergency, calling the internet-fueled speculation false and absurd. Speaking during a roundtable hosted by The Hollywood Reporter, Foxx, 57, said he encountered the claims while recovering from a stroke in the hospital.
"I didn't know what the outside world was saying and I couldn't get my mind around the fact that I had a stroke. I'm in f-king perfect shape. [I see things like,] 'Puffy tried to kill me,'" Foxx stated. "No, Puffy didn't try to kill me."
Foxx, who suffered a brain bleed and lost nearly three weeks of memory, described regaining awareness in a hospital wheelchair and learning that doctors believed he had been "within an inch of his life." Despite being heavily sedated, he recalled scrolling through his phone to see online chatter surrounding his mysterious hospitalization.
What truly rattled the Academy Award winner, however, was not the Diddy rumor but a separate online theory claiming he had been cloned. "When they said I was a clone, that made me flip," Foxx said. "I'm sitting in the hospital bed, like, 'These bitch-ass motherf-kers are trying to clone me.'"
He turned the experience into comedy, quipping to his psychiatrist: "I know what's up, you're trying to clone me and make me white so I'll sell better overseas." The psychiatrist responded, "I think we're going to lower your dosage."
Foxx previously addressed the Diddy-related conspiracy in his 2024 Netflix stand-up special, What Had Happened Was. "The internet said Puffy was trying to kill me, that's what the internet was saying. I know what you thinking, 'Diddy?' Hell no, I left them parties early," Foxx told the audience. "It's slippery in here."
Combs, who was arrested in September 2024 on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, is currently on trial and faces life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors allege he hosted "Freak-Off" parties involving coercive sex acts. Although Foxx and Combs had been publicly friendly before the legal fallout, Foxx has denied any link between the Bad Boy mogul and his health emergency.
Foxx credited his sister, Deidra Dixon, and his daughter, Anelise, with saving his life during the April 2023 stroke. In What Had Happened Was, he referred to his daughter as a "spiritual defibrillator" who helped keep him calm while awaiting treatment.
In lighter moments during the roundtable, Foxx also recounted telling a joke about Oprah Winfrey that drew laughs from her close friend Gayle King. Recalling post-Oscar rumors that he was dating Winfrey, Foxx told a Madison Square Garden crowd: "So, I'm laying in bed with Oprah... And I lean over to Gayle and say, 'Ain't this s- crazy? Stedman, get us some juice!'"
