Jamie Foxx has by no means had an easy upbringing. Having been forsaken by his birth parents Louise Bishop and Darrell Bishop (who presently goes by Shahid Abdula) at a shockingly young age, the Academy Award-winning actor had a rough childhood, to say the least; the only people who ever came even close to resembling his parental figures were his grandparents.
And when Foxx’s father was arrested, his already abrasive relationship with him only got more entangled.
Jamie Foxx Refused to Visit His Father in Prison
Despite their fractured family tale and the heartbreak of abandonment that haunted Jamie Foxx years after during his adulthood, the Ray star still had a soft corner for his parents, especially his father, after all, they’re his blood. So, when Shahid Abdula went to jail for seven horrid years after being caught with merely $25 worth of illegal substances, Foxx was utterly and completely devastated.
“This man was an educator in the hood, in the inner cities, educating kids – the judge […] presided over his case and put him in jail. What they didn’t understand was [he] taught me everything, he taught me how to throw a football or basketball, taught me how to play tennis.”
A crestfallen Foxx, who was agonized over his dad’s imprisonment, refused to visit the latter when he was serving time because he couldn’t possibly bring himself to perceive Abdula in what he knew was going to be an appalling state; the 55-year-old actor admitted that he couldn’t dare risk sullying the image he had of his father by visiting him in prison.
“I don’t like visiting jail. I don’t like that type of perception. So, I told my pops, ‘I can’t come see you, ’cause I see you as a king.’ But I wrote him a letter, I said, ‘Hey, you know, things have gotten good for me. When you get out, I’ll save your life.'”
And well, Foxx lived up to his promise.
20 Years And Going Strong
While Abdula’s incarceration was a blow to both father and son, there did turn out to be a silver lining seeing how it also led to him becoming Foxx’s permanent roommate.
The Django Unchained star has been living with his parents for over two decades now, with his estranged mother joining him a few years after his dad moved in. Since Louise and Abdula divorced a long time ago, the prospect of them sharing a residence seemed a bit skewed at first, but Foxx’s grand 17000 sq ft. house worth $10.5 million has certainly made it easier for both to enjoy their own space.
Yet another redeeming factor surrounding his father’s time in jail was that it also inspired Foxx’s role in the critically acclaimed legal drama, Just Mercy, which narrated the real-life story of Walter McMillian, a black man who was wrongly convicted of a murder that he didn’t commit. “To have [my father] taken away from me, I could easily sort of tap into what this story was about,” Foxx told ET back in 2020.
Source: The Graham Norton Show
