How Jamie Foxx’s Daughter, a Guitar and God Saved His Life

Published: December 12, 2024

How Jamie Foxx’s Daughter, a Guitar and God Saved His Life

By Movieguide® Contributor

Jamie Foxx survived a major health scare and is just now opening up about it.

Back in April 2023, he suffered a stroke and was in a coma for 20 days. The actor shared his experience in his Netflix special WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS…

“I was fighting for my life,” he explained. “April 11, 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.”

Doctors believed that Foxx had a brain bleed. “If I don’t go in his head right now, we’re going to lose him,” a doctor at Piedmont Hospital said.

After surgery, the doctor shared with Foxx’s sister that they didn’t find the bleed: “You were right, your prayers are answered. We didn’t find where it was coming from, but he is having a stroke. He may be able to make a full recovery, but it’s going to be the worst year of his life.”

The actor credits his daughter, Anelise, for saving his life.

“They said at one point, the first 15 days, they thought they were going to lose me because my vitals were out of control,” Foxx said. “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.”

“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 continued, “They said when she was playing, my vitals went down. The nurses at the nurse’s 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.”

Foxx took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a sweet photo of him hugging his daughter while she held her guitar.

“She would carry her guitar with her everywhere she went… I didn’t know that GOD was in that guitar… and she used that guitar to Heal me and bring me back and to make sure that I’m here,” he wrote.

“My beautiful daughter you are special and I’m glad the world gets a chance to see how special you are…… Anelise Estelle Foxx. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️. ‘please don’t take me now.’ ‘what had happened was.’ is out now. It’s different and it’s necessary. I hope it inspires.”