(Photo by Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Global Down Syndrome Foundation)
Actor, musician, funnyman…there are only a few things that superstar Jamie Foxx can’t do. But if you ask him who’s the real star of the family, he’ll quickly point to his younger sister, DeOndra Dixon.
DeOndra was born with Down’s Syndrome, the genetic disorder typically associated with physical growth delays, characteristic facial features, and mild to moderate intellectual disability.
“She speaks her mind and knows that there’s nothing she can’t do,” shares Jamie. “She has such a special quality, and she can light up a room. I don’t know where she gets it. It’s amazing.”
Here’s how Jamie describes her as the true star in the family.
“When I’m doing the music video for ‘Blame It On The Alcohol’, my sister says, ‘Big Bro, you gonna let me get down in the video, right?
I want to dance in the video’ So we’re shooting and it’s getting late, so she says again, ‘Big bro, don’t forget about me.’
So we’re there and everybody’s there, Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, etc. Long story short, she killed the video.
Quincy sees the video and says “I want to connect you to the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.” He does and my sister becomes their official ambassador. She goes everywhere, she’s been to Congress. She’s the star. She’s amazing.'”
“She is a huge part of Jamie’s life,” says longtime family friend Hanna Abounader. “He will be running around crazy with all these things to do, and DeOndra will walk up, grab him and hug him, and he’ll stand there for 10 minutes hugging her. It brings tears to your eyes.“
For Foxx, it is a sibling bond that brings both rewards, and challenges. “One thing people may not understand is that the person with special needs, the love that they give you is unfiltered,” he says.
“There is nothing in the way of them loving you, and there is nothing in the way of them being upset with you either.
You really get the true individual. It’s challenging, but it is moments like this that make it all work. She’s a superstar now.”
“He works on me every day about my eating habits,” DeOndra tells People.com. “That’s the challenge, because we want to extend her life. It’s tough because she is grown, and she says, ‘I’m eatin’ it!’ It’s not always glory, it’s not always glamorous. Sometimes it just is what it is and you have to deal with it.”
(Photo credit: Babycenter.com)
By the time DeOndra graduated from high school in 2002, Foxx had made it big in L.A. “I said, ‘She’s going to live with me,'” remembers Foxx, who already had his other sister Deidra, 34, a hairstylist on his movies, living with him.
Then the stepfather he calls Pops and his mother moved in as well. “Moving my family in with me is nothing but nonstop laughter and kickin’ it,” says Foxx. “And a little work.”
Whether that work is Jamie helping her with her eating habits or them working together at an event, for DeOndra, it’s all love.
“I’m happy to have a big brother to count on,” she says simply, “who I love every day.”
(Photo credit Jamie Foxx Instagram)
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