During his Ultimate Icon acceptance speech at the BET Awards, a heartfelt Jamie Foxx shares his health scare and reflects on the goodness of God. Music legend, Stevie Wonder, presented the award to his longtime friend.
“I cannot even begin to express the love that I feel from everybody out there,” Foxx stated after receiving the award.
“I gotta be honest, when I saw the In Memoriam, I was like, man, it could have been me. I don’t know why I went through what I went through, but I know my second chance, I’m not gonna turn down,” Foxx expressed.
In April 2023, the 57-year-old experienced a health emergency while filming Back in Action in Atlanta, alongside Cameron Diaz. At that time, his health emergency was not fully detailed. He returned to Atlanta in October 2023 and performed a stand-up comedy show, disclosing in his Netflix special, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…, that his undisclosed medical condition was a brain bleed, which resulted in a stroke and a challenging recovery for the Oscar winning actor.
“I don’t remember 20 days,” he stated while recounting his hospitalization during the Netflix special.
His retelling resonates as the first doctor overlooked his illness. However, his sister, Deidra Dixon, recognized that he was not acting like himself and took it upon herself to drive him around in search of hospitals, ultimately choosing to stop at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, he shared during his Netflix special. Now fast forward to the present moment, Foxx is confidently moving ahead to share his testimony.
“You can’t go through something like that and not testify,” Foxx concluded in his speech.
The Ultimate Icon award honors years of innovative icon who made contributions to music, entertainment, advocacy, and community influence.
