Jamie Foxx finally gives details on “mystery illness” in new Netflix special

Jamie Foxx has kept the circumstances surrounding his “mystery illness” close to his chest for a year and a half. While he would provide some details here and there, by and large the entire scenario was kept in the dark. But as he teased when announcing his new stand-up special, Jamie Foxx has opened up exponentially.

Aptly titled What Had Happened Was…, Jamie Foxx’s Netflix special (and his first in more than two decades) found the actor/musician/comedian opened up to the audience in an intimate – and funny – fashion, saying, “It is a mystery, we still don’t know exactly what happened to me. I was having a bad headache and I asked my boy for an aspirin. Before I could get the aspirin, I went out. I don’t remember 20 days. What they told me was they took me to the first doctor and they gave me a cortisone shot and sent me home. I don’t know if you can do Yelps for doctors but that’s half a star. My sister said ‘No.’ Four foot eleven, and full of nothing but love, she said, ‘Something’s wrong with my brother.'”

But things were far more serious for Jamie Foxx than he or anyone in his family could have guessed. Foxx actually had a brain bleed, which led to a stroke. As Foxx joked, “I saw the tunnel. I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel. Sh*t, am I going to the wrong place in this motherf*cker? Because I looked at the end of the tunnel, and I thought I saw the Devil like, ‘C’mon.’ Or is that Puffy?”

Doctor also told Jamie Foxx that recovery was possible but it would take a lot of work. And that’s evidently what Foxx put into it, focusing on getting better so the world could see him as he wants to be seen: healthy and ready for work. And while Foxx did have a short stint doing stand-up, he’ll next be promoting another aptly titled project: Back in Action, which co-stars Cameron Diaz (herself coming out of retirement) and hits Netflix on January 17th.

What Had Happened Was… is now available on Netflix.