Jamie Foxx is giving his daughter, Corinne Foxx, plenty of credit for helping save his life.

During an Aug. 25 conversation on Keke Palmer’s podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, Foxx opened up about his 2023 health scare, recalling his conversation with a doctor who treated him after he suffered a stroke. According to Foxx, the doctor emphasized Corinne’s critical role in his survival.

“I wanted to know his version,” Foxx told Palmer, 33, of the conversation. “He says, ‘Hey man, without her you wouldn’t be here.’ ”

Corinne Foxx and Jamie Foxx attend the Los Angeles Screening of ‘Below The Belt’ on October 01, 2022.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
For Foxx, real name Eric Marlon Bishop, the revelation put his eldest daughter’s actions into perspective.

Foxx first became a father in 1994, when he welcomed daughter Corinne, now 32, with ex Connie Kline. Fifteen years later, he and ex Kristin Grannis welcomed his second daughter, Anelise Bishop, now 17. In May, PEOPLE confirmed that Foxx is expecting his third child, his first with girlfriend Alyce Huckstepp.

The Django Unchained star compared Corinne’s response to the crisis to Michael Corleone stepping in to protect his father in The Godfather after learning he had been shot.

“That’s who she was,” Foxx said.

Foxx said the doctor later emphasized just how extraordinary Corinne’s handling of the situation had been.

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“He says, ‘Man, your daughter saved your life,’ ” Foxx recalled. “He talked about Corinne. She saved you. He said, ‘She’s the reason that you’re here.’ ”

Foxx’s comments come more than three years after he was hospitalized in Atlanta after suffering a stroke. The actor has previously kept many details of the medical emergency private, and during the conversation he acknowledged that he himself doesn’t remember much of what happened. Afterward, he returned to the hospital to meet the roughly 60 nurses who had cared for him, describing the experience as a surreal reminder of just how serious his condition had been.

According to Foxx, the nurses told him he was a “miracle,” sharing that fewer than 3% of people who came in with what he had walked out of the hospital.

“We usually put them in a box,” Foxx recalled the nurses saying to him.

Jamie Foxx attends the world premiere of Netflix’s “Day Shift” at Regal LA Live on August 10, 2022. Frazer Harrison/Getty
Foxx also opened up about the disorientation he experienced during his recovery and rehabilitation. When doctors told him he had suffered a stroke, he said he initially struggled to understand what had happened.

The comedian in him, however, never completely disappeared. Foxx said he often used jokes as a way to cope while he was recovering.

“They couldn’t do wellness checks on me because I only had comedy to lean on,” he said. “So, I was just funny. I was always joking all the time.”

At one point, when medical staff asked him who he was, Foxx said he would give them a different answer, jokingly pretending to be Denzel Washington or Dave Chappelle.

“Who are you today? Damn, it’s crazy. I’m Dave Chappelle,” he remembered saying. “But that was the only way that I could stay. That’s the only way I could find myself, of course.”

Jamie Foxx (L) and Corinne Foxx attend the 2018 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater on June 24, 2018.Earl Gibson III/WireImage
For Corinne, there wasn’t much time to process the fear of seeing her father seriously ill, but she quickly became “laser-focused” on his care.

“When you’re in it, you don’t have time to be scared because your brain overhauls adrenaline,” Corinne recalled. “You’re just in caretaking mode and you’re never really ready to take care of your parents. You’re never ready for that moment, but when it happened, I was like ‘I got this.’ ”

That included dealing with the intense speculation surrounding her father’s condition. As Foxx remained hospitalized, rumors began spreading online about his health, including bizarre conspiracy theories and claims that he had been cloned.

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Corinne said the internet became one of the most difficult parts of the experience.

“I had never been on the bad side of the internet. I always had nice comments. People were nice. But as soon as he went dark, it was scary the places the internet went with the cloning and the conspiracy,” she explained.

She also made clear that she was never going to disclose her father’s medical information simply to quiet the speculation.

“But it also was not my place to ever release his medical information,” she said. “That was the toughest part: just trying to manage that. But it didn’t really matter. They can say whatever they want as long as he’s good.”

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Foxx said that the experience changed the way he looks at his daughter.

“When I look at her now, I say, I got to live this thing. Got to live it,” he said. “Awakening and realizing how much love and how much strength someone had for you. We should all have a Corinne Marie Foxx. No, I’m serious.”

Foxx also has several film projects in the works, including the Netflix Olympic boxing drama Fight for ’84, in which he stars and serves as a producer, and the action film Deadlocked, which he is also producing and starring in.

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