Jamie Foxx Says Daughter Anelise Helped Save His Life Following His Health Crisis

Jamie Foxx says he has his 16-year-old daughter Anelise to thank for saving his life following his April 2023 medical emergency. After he suffered a “brain bleed that led to a stroke” while on the Atlanta set of the movie Back in Action on April 11, 2023, the actor, 56, shared in his new Netflix comedy special Jamie Foxx: What Happened Was… that he experienced a “miracle” in his recovery when his daughter started playing guitar by his hospital bed.

“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, who was hospitalized at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, recalled of the harrowing ordeal. “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.’”

Foxx described this time in the hospital as “touch and go,” but said “that’s when a miracle happened, and that miracle was working through my youngest daughter.” Anelise, whom the actor shares with ex Kristin Grannis and who was just 14 at the time of her father’s health crisis, “snuck into my hospital room with her guitar and she said, ‘I know what my daddy needs … that’s my daddy.’”

“They said when she was playing, my vitals went down,” he continued. “The nurses at the nurses station were baffled. Like, ‘Wow what did they give him?’ They rushed into the room and she said, ‘Shh. I got him.’ … Do you know what I found out? That God was in that guitar. That’s my spiritual defibrillator.”

“When you think about, as you grow older, you wonder about the hard times. Who’s going to be there? Who’s actually going to be there? I don’t have to wonder that anymore,” the Oscar winner said.

After Anelise joined her father on stage to perform on the Netflix special, released Dec. 10, an emotional Foxx thanked his daughter “for stepping up when all was lost.” Anelise responded, “You had to make it because I always dreamed that we’d perform together onstage one day” before the father-daughter duo went on to perform a song together about Foxx’s lengthy recovery.

“I love you,” Foxx sweetly told his daughter as the crowd cheered. ““I love you, too,” Anelise responded as she walked off stage.

Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… was taped at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta “just 400 yards away” from Piedmont Hospital where Foxx was treated. It is now streaming on Netflix. The special recently picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television.