Jamie Foxx jokes he saw ‘devil’ Diddy while nearly dying from stroke

Jamie Foxx struggles to hold back tears in his new Netflix special, “What Had Happened Was…,” as he described his near-death experience while facing surgery following a brain bleed and stroke in April 2023.

In revealing the cause of the so-called “mystery illness” that kept him out of the public eye for many months, Foxx also joked that he saw accused sex trafficker Sean “Diddy” Combs as he entered that “tunnel” that people sometimes report seeing during near-death experiences, as the Daily Beast and Deadline reported. And, as Foxx told it, the now federally indicted music mogul, who’s also been known as “Puffy,” was the devil.

“Your life doesn’t flash before your face, it was kind of oddly peaceful,” Foxx told the crowd in Atlanta during his stand-up special that was released Monday, the Daily Beast reported. Atlanta incidentally is where his medical drama unexpectedly unfolded while he was filming a movie with Cameron Diaz. As the Academy Award winner explained, he suddenly collapsed after suffering a bad headache and regained consciousness 20 days later, unable to walk and in need of brain surgery.

“I say this all the time, I saw the tunnel, I didn’t see the light, “ Foxx continued. “It was hot in that tunnel. I thought, have I gone to the wrong place? I looked at the end of the tunnel and I thought I saw the devil saying come on… or was that Puffy?”

“I’m (expletive) around,” Foxx laughed, “but if that was Puffy he had a flaming bottle of Johnson and… no, I’m just kidding.”

The “flaming hot bottle of Johnson” is no doubt a crude reference to Johnson and Johnson baby oil, which was seized in abundance during federal raids of Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami last March. The supposition is that the baby oil and other lubricants were used in the “freak off” orgies that Combs allegedly hosted, at which he allegedly oversaw women being drugged and coerced into sexual activities with male sex workers.

Combs also figured into Foxx’s other jokes about his stroke, with the comedian addressing a persistent internet rumor that the disgraced rapper had something to do with his medical emergency, the Daily Beast said.

“The internet was trying to kill me,” Foxx said. “The internet was saying that Puffy was trying to kill me. I know what you’re thinking.… Did he?!”

“Hell, no,” Foxx added, with another quip about Combs’ “freak off” parties. “I left them parties early. I was out by 9 … something don’t look right. … It looks slippery in here!”

Foxx began his comedy special by addressing the cause of what became known as his “mystery illness,” Deadline reported. The media didn’t know what else to call what happened to the comedian, who was 55 at the time. His family didn’t release many details about his condition, other than to cryptically say he suffered “a medical complication” in April 2023, which required hospitalization.

Foxx said, in certain ways, “what happened” to him is still a mystery, according to Deadline.

“We still don’t know exactly what happened to me,” Foxx said. “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. What they told me was they took me to the first doctor and they gave me a cortisone shot and sent me home. I don’t know if you can do Yelps for doctors but that’s half a star.”

Foxx said his sister, Deidra Dixon, insisted that something was seriously wrong with him. He said she took him to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, which “put me back together.” This was when he met a doctor who said, “He’s having a brain bleed that’s led to a stroke.” Foxx said, “They took me into operate on me.”

That’s apparently when he had his near-death experience, went into “the tunnel” and didn’t actually see Combs.

At other points during his set, Foxx also danced to prove he’s “still sexy” and repeated the words, “Atlanta saved my life.”

As much as it may come as a surprise to Foxx’s fans and many others that he suffered a stroke in his 50s, it is not uncommon for people in this age group to be so afflicted.