10 December 2024
Jamie Foxx believes his daughter Anelise's guitar playing saved his life after a bleed on the brain led him to suffer a stroke.
Jamie Foxx believes God was in the guitar his daughter played at his bedside after he suffered a near-fatal stroke and bleed on the brain
The ‘Creed III’ actor was hospitalised in April last year after suffering a mystery “medical complication”, which his family decided to keep private, but he has now detailed his health ordeal in the Netflix special 'Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was....'.
The 56-year-old comedian - who has Anelise, 16, with his ex Kristin Grannis - revealed that staff at Atlanta's Piedmont Hospital thought they were going to "lose" him in the first 13 to 15 days of his hospitalisation as his "vitals" were all over the place, but they miraculously started going "down" when the teenager started strumming the instrument at her father's bedside.
He recalled: "They said at one point, the first 15 days, they thought they were going to lose me because my vitals were out of control.
"There was a 13- or 14-day period where they said, we’ve gotta keep him calm and we’ve given him every medication that they could. It’s not working, we gotta keep him calm because his vitals are so high we’re going to lose him."
He quipped: "Do you know what the worst thing to have in a hospital room when you’re trying to keep calm? Black family members."
The religious star believes God "was in that guitar" and that it acted as his "spiritual defibrillator".
He went on: "That’s when a miracle happened, and that miracle was working through my youngest daughter. She’s 14. I didn’t want her to see me like that but she snuck into my hospital room with her guitar and she said, ‘I know what my daddy needs … that’s my daddy.’”
He added: "They said when she was playing, my vitals went down. The nurses at the nurses station were baffled. Like, 'Wow what did they give him?' They rushed into the room and she said, ‘Ssh. I got him.’ ... Do you know what I found out? That God was in that guitar. That’s my spiritual defibrillator."
Jamie - who also has Corinne, 30, with Connie Kline - welcomed Anelise onstage to perform a moving piece to the guitar with her parent.
An emotional Jamie declared: "Play, play, play."
He continued: "Let them see your talent, shine Anelise, shine baby."
Jamie told her: "Anelise, thank you so much for stepping up when all was lost."
Both wiping away their tears, Anelise told her pop: "You had to make it because I always dreamed that we’d perform together onstage one day."
In the tear-jerking song about the medical emergency, Jamie rapped and sang: "God don’t take me, my oldest daughter’s getting married, please let me walk her down the aisle."
Jamie was well enough to walk his eldest girl down the aisle in September, when the actress tied the knot with Joe Hooten.
English (US) ·