Since Jamie Foxx was hospitalized for unknown reasons in April 2023, the Oscar-winning actor, singer and comedian has largely stayed out of the spotlight and his health remains shrouded in mystery. But in his new Netflix special What had happened was (Streaming now on Netflix), Foxx reveals the harrowing details of the debilitating stroke that brought him to the brink of death – and his arduous road to recovery.

“I fought for my life, but I’m standing right in front of you,” a tearful Foxx tells a cheering crowd in Atlanta after being introduced by his daughter, actress Corinne Foxx. “If I dance all night, I don’t mind. I’m happy to be alive.”

Foxx explains that he wanted to film the special in Atlanta because that’s where he started training stand-up and because the doctors and nurses at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital were the first to care for him after his stroke. At the time, Foxx was in Atlanta filming his upcoming Netflix film Back in action Starring Cameron Diaz.

“Atlanta saved my life,” he repeats to the audience during the special, which has already been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance in Television Stand-Up Comedy.

Here are the key takeaways from the performance:

His “mysterious illness” began with headaches.

On April 11, 2023, Foxx got a severe headache and asked a friend for an aspirin. But before he could bear it, he “went out,” he says. He doesn’t remember the next 20 days, but Foxx says friends and family told him that the first doctor he saw gave him a cortisone shot and sent him home. When his sister Deidra Dixon visited him, she insisted he seek further medical care because something was wrong.

Dixon drove him to Piedmont Hospital, where another doctor suspected Foxx had a brain bleed that led to a stroke. The doctor operated on Foxx in what the actor says was a near-death experience. “He may make a full recovery, but it will be the worst year of his life,” Foxx tearfully recounts the doctor telling his sister.

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When Foxx woke up 20 days later, he was in a rehabilitation center in Chicago and was confused to find he was in a wheelchair.

Foxx initially refused to participate in recovery therapy.

In an emotional retelling, Foxx recalls being dizzy, frustrated and stubbornly resistant to physical and mental therapy. “I’m Jamie Foxx. I don’t need anything. I don’t want to see a therapist,” he says. “They say, ‘You’ve been given a second chance.’ I don’t want a second chance. What’s wrong with my first chance?”

Eventually, Foxx says, the rehab center sent a nurse named Holly who urged him to get out of bed and get an overview of his situation. She reminded him that while he had a chance to get better, there were people who wouldn’t be able to leave the facility he was in.

Foxx’s sense of humor is well intact.

Foxx says he joked with the nurses and his other visitors during his time in rehab, telling himself, “If I can stay funny, I can stay alive.”

While he sheds plenty of tears while speaking candidly about his health scare, Foxx also taps into his comedy roots, doing impressions of Wesley Snipes, Dave Chappelle, Jay-Z, Mike Tyson and even Donald Trump. In the opening minutes of the special, he also nods to the sexual assault, harassment and sex trafficking allegations against Sean Combs.

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“They said on the internet that Puffy tried to kill me. I know what you’re thinking: ‘He did?'” Foxx says. “Hell no, I left the parties early. I was out at nine. “Something doesn’t look right.” “It’s slippery in here” (a reference to the more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil found during Diddy’s home search as part of the Department of Homeland Security investigation).

Later in the special, he returns to Diddy and describes his “strangely peaceful” near-death experience: “I saw the tunnel. However, I didn’t see the light, I was in a tunnel. It was hot in this tunnel. (I thought), “Shit, am I going to the wrong place in this bastard?” ‘Cause I looked at the end of the tunnel and thought I saw the devil. Or was that Puffy?”

Foxx celebrates how his family “held me the fuck down” during this scary moment in his life.

While he suffered his stroke, memory loss and subsequent recovery, Foxx says he stayed out of the spotlight because his sister and older daughter tried their best to keep him out of the public eye. “They didn’t want you to see me like that, and I didn’t want you to see me like that,” he explains. “I wanted you to see me like that.” The comedian tears up as he explains that he doesn’t have to wonder who will be by his side in the worst times because he’s been through them himself.

Before leaving the stage, Foxx also brings out his younger daughter, 14-year-old Anelise Bishop, who plays guitar for the audience. Foxx says he was told that for the first 15 days after his stroke, his vital signs were “out of control” and everything was very “up and down.” But when Bishop snuck into his hospital room and played her guitar, nurses were “stunned” to see his vitals plummeting. “Do you know what I found out? “There was God in that guitar,” he says. “This is my spiritual defibrillator.”

Bishop strums along as Foxx shares a conversation he had with God during this turbulent time. After she finishes her song, Foxx sits down at the piano and leads the audience through a long list of his achievements, including a performance of his Grammy-nominated song “Slow Jamz.”

We still don’t know everything about what happened to Jamie Foxx.

While Foxx opens up about his stroke and the severity of his medical condition, some details remain unclear. While Foxx says he was “gone for 20 days” during the entire health crisis, it’s not entirely clear whether he lost consciousness, fell into a coma, suffered from amnesia, or something else entirely during the experience.