Jamie Foxx Explains Public Leave of Absence That Anyone With Sick Family Has Probably Heard Before

Jamie Foxx has spoken out for the first time since April when he was in the hospital for unspecified reasons.

Taking to Instagram, Foxx posted a video in which he thanked his family, explaining that his sister, Deidra Dixon, and his daughter,  Corinne “saved my life,” thanking them for “keeping it airtight” and protecting his privacy. He also thanked the medical professionals who had helped him through his illness.

In the video, he begins, “First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone that’s prayed, man, and sent me messages. I cannot begin to tell you how far it took me and how it brought me back. I went through something that I never thought I would go through. I know people have been waiting, wanting updates, but you know, I just didn’t want you to see me like that, man.”

And Jamie has every right to feel that way, especially considering people are literally proving his point by saying that he “looks different” in his comments. Like, of course, he’s going to look different! The man has been ill for a number of months. What do you expect? It’s quite reminiscent of people saying things about Chadwick Boseman before he passed away. It can’t be nice for Jamie to see, either.

In the video, he continues saying, “I want you to see me laughing, having a good time, partying, cracking a joke, doing a movie, television show.” This is, again, fair enough. He doesn’t owe fans or the rest of us anything, and certainly not his medical history. However, this does mean that people have speculated about why he has been in the hospital.

All under his previous posts, people were quick to take to the comments to say how they thought pictures of him were AI or that he’d been hacked because “Jamie wouldn’t post stuff like this.” The man himself even tells viewers that it “got out of hand” with people diagnosing him with things.

There are also people who love a conspiracy trying to say that he’s cloned, which, technically, he is—in his new film called They Cloned Tyrone. Although he can’t fully promote it due to the WGA/SAG strikes, he does reference it in the video with some subtle nudges, including “I didn’t want you to see me with twos.”

Toward the end of the video, Jamie gets emotional. “I just wanna say that I love everybody and I love all of the love that I got … It’s been tough, I was sick but now I’ve got my legs out under me … I just want you to remember me for the jokes that I crack, the movies that I make—some of them good, some of them ain’t, think I got a good one out—and songs that I sing.”

He then makes another clone reference by jokingly going to take off his skin but says he is “just kidding.”

“I love all of y’all,” he finishes, “I just wanted to jump on here and let you know that I’m on my way back.”

(featured image: Dave Benett, Getty Images)