Jamie Foxx's daughter celebrated her engagement in his physical rehab room (original) (raw)

Corinne Foxx refused to celebrate a major milestone without her father, Jamie Foxx, at her side.

Weeks after her wedding to TV executive Joseph Hooten, Corinne divulged the intimate details of their engagement to Vogue — including the steps that she and Hooten took to ensure her father’s involvement, in the midst of recovery from his sudden 2023 health crisis.

Five years into their relationship, Hooten planned an elaborate spring proposal for their 2023 trip to Ireland. "However, when my dad got sick, our plans changed, and we ended up spending our summer in Chicago while he recovered,” Corinne revealed. “Little did I know that Joe had changed his plans so he could still propose on the same day—just in a different city.”

Jamie Foxx and Corinne Foxx.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

Hooten instead found a Chicago park with cherry blossoms and called upon the entire Foxx clan to participate, including her mom, Connie Kline.

“He flew in my mom from Los Angeles and had my aunts hiding in a bush FaceTiming my dad the entire time,” Corinne shared. “He even planned a very special post-engagement party in my dad’s room [at a physical rehabilitation center] in Chicago.”

She added, “It was a small celebration, but it was so intimate and meaningful.”

The couple tied the knot on Sept. 21, 2024 — a year and a half after her father suffered a “medical complication” in April 2023. His daughter was the first to share the news of Foxx's condition, though the family has since remained private about the reason for his hospitalization. While the situation took Jamie out of the spotlight for several months, he still had a wedding to celebrate — and, fittingly, it was held at his own Thousand Oaks, Calif., home.

“It was never a question. We always knew we’d get married in my dad’s backyard,” Corinne said. “He has the most gorgeous property. It already looks like a wedding venue. We couldn’t think of anywhere more special than a home wedding. It just felt right.”

It was made all the more meaningful when her father walked her down the aisle. “It was incredibly special, considering his health scare last year. I walked down to a strings version of ‘Georgia on My Mind’ by Ray Charles. My dad won his Oscar for playing [Ray] in 2005. At 10 years old, I was his plus one and got to share that special moment with him. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when we came down the aisle.”

Corinne Foxx and Joe Hooten in 2019.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Hooten said that though he didn’t expect to cry, “all bets were off” when he saw Corinne and an emotional Jamie coming down the aisle, towards him.

“I was in awe of her beauty and inspired by Jamie’s example of fatherhood,” he recalled. “During Jamie’s health scare, the whole family went through and overcame so much. Seeing all of us make it to this moment just opened the floodgates. It was beautiful and unlike anything I could have imagined.”

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Foxx was hospitalized for several weeks in 2023 and provided few updates until July, when he addressed fans directly in a self-taped video.

"I just didn't want you to see me like that," Foxx said of his desire for privacy. "I want you to see me laughing, having a good time, partying, cracking a joke, doing a movie, a television show. I just didn't want you to see me with tubes running out of me and trying to figure out if I was going to make it through.”

Later that year, while accepting the Vanguard Award at the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievements, he revealed that he had seen a hot tunnel, rather than "the light" when he was faced with his own mortality.