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Jamie Foxx, 58, Says Daughter Corinne Saved His Life After Stroke
The Oscar winner revisits his 2023 brain bleed and the daughter who took charge when he became critically ill
Corinne and Jamie Foxx are seen here in July 2025. The actor said his daughter helped save his life after his 2023 stroke.
Marc Piasecki/Getty Images for Amend
Key takeaways
- Jamie Foxx says a doctor who treated him after his 2023 stroke told him his daughter Corinne saved his life.
- Foxx has said a brain bleed led to the stroke, which left him with major gaps in his memory and required rehabilitation.
- Doctors interviewed by AARP stress that recognizing the symptoms of a stroke and getting emergency treatment quickly can improve recovery.
Jamie Foxx says his daughter Corinne did more than stand by him during the medical crisis that nearly killed him. According to one of the doctors who treated the Oscar winner after his 2023 stroke, she helped save his life.
Foxx, 58, and Corinne revisited the ordeal during an Aug. 25 appearance on Keke Palmer’s Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast.
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He recalled later asking his doctor exactly what had happened while he was critically ill.
“He said, ‘Man, your daughter saved your life,’ ” Foxx said on the podcast. “ ‘She saved you. She’s the reason that you’re here.’ ”
The medical emergency began in the spring of 2023. Foxx later revealed that what started with a severe headache turned out to be a brain bleed that led to a stroke. In his 2024 Netflix special, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…, he said he could not remember about 20 days of the experience; he was hospitalized in Atlanta and later underwent rehabilitation in Chicago. AARP previously reported that Foxx initially struggled to walk, speak well and perform basic tasks such as brushing his teeth.
Much of what happened in the hospital remains outside Foxx’s memory. When he later returned to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, he said, he met the nurses who cared for him.
One offered a stark assessment of how serious his condition had been.
“She said, ‘But Jamie, I want you to know something. You’re a miracle,’ ” Foxx recalled on the podcast. “She said, ‘Less than 3 percent of people that come in with what you have walk out of here.’ ”
Foxx said humor became one of the ways he coped once he regained awareness. When hospital workers tried to conduct wellness checks, he sometimes jokingly gave the names of other celebrities instead of his own.
“Who are you today?” he recalled being asked. His answer: “Damn, it’s crazy. I’m Dave Chappelle. Somebody said I had a stroke.”
Foxx said he struggled to make sense of the diagnosis and the recovery ahead.
“The rehab part was frustrating because they said, ‘You got a second chance,’ ” he said on the podcast. “I said, ‘A second chance? What was wrong with my first chance?’ ”
His daughter Corinne, 32, remembers that period from the other side of the hospital bed. Podcast host Palmer asked whether she was frightened while caring for her father.
“When you’re in it, you don’t have time to be scared because your brain overhauls adrenaline,” Corinne said. “You’re just in caretaking mode.” She said she became “laser focused” on protecting her father and getting him through the crisis while also dealing with the public and providing updates on his health.
She was careful in what she shared about her dad’s condition and treatment. “It also was not my place to ever release his medical information,” she said on the podcast.
The stroke interrupted a career that spanned multiple decades. Foxx first became nationally known on In Living Color, a sketch comedy show. He then built a film résumé that included a best actor Academy Award for playing Ray Charles in Ray and a supporting actor nomination the same year for Collateral. He later starred in Django Unchained.
Today he works alongside Corinne on the music game show Beat Shazam. “I love the show because I feel like this is the truest version of him, because he gets to do comedy, sing, dance.… This felt so natural for us to do,” Corinne said on the podcast.
What experts want you to know about stroke
A stroke is far from rare. Nearly 12 million people worldwide have a stroke each year, according to the World Stroke Organization’s 2025 Global Stroke Fact Sheet, and 1 in 4 people over age 25 will have a stroke during their lifetime. More than half of strokes occur in people younger than 70.
When stroke symptoms appear, speed matters. Experts interviewed by AARP recommend remembering B.E.F.A.S.T.: The signs someone is having a stroke are (B) balance loss, (E) eyesight changes, (F) face drooping, (A) arm weakness and (S) speech difficulty. If you see any of these symptoms, it’s (T) time to call 911. Dr. William “BJ” Hicks, a vascular neurologist at OhioHealth, told AARP that during a stroke, “you lose roughly 2 million brain cells every minute.”
Reduce stroke risks
Stroke risk isn’t just about what happens in an emergency. AARP’s guide to lowering stroke risk examines everyday factors that can affect risk and other conditions that may increase it.
Dr. David Miller, an interventional neuroradiologist and codirector of the stroke center at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, emphasized how quickly the treatment window can narrow. “As soon as you cut the blood flow off to the brain, the clock starts ticking,” he told AARP.
For Foxx, those medical stakes are deeply personal. The crisis changed how he thinks about the life he nearly lost — and the daughter who helped save it.
“When I look at her now, I say, ‘I got to live this thing. Got to live it,’ ” he said. “We should all have a Corinne Marie Foxx.”
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
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