Johnny Knoxville reveals he suffered a brain hemorrhage following 'Jackass' bull stunt

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By Carina Murphy

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Johnny Knoxville has opened up about a terrifying injury he sustained while doing a stunt with a bull for Jackass Forever.

The 50-year-old Jackass star revealed that he suffered brain damage as well as breaking multiple bones when a bull charged and threw him in the air.

As we all know, Knoxville is no stranger to dangerous stunts and injuries.

Having starred in the franchise since 2000, he's racked up over $8.6 million in hospital fees from on-set incidents, The Sun reports.

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Knoxville in Jackass Forever. Credit: Entertainment Pictures / Alamy

But not only is his latest injury his most costly (with recovery estimated to have cost $2.5 million) - it was also his most damaging.

In a recent interview with Howard Stern on The Howard Stern Show, Knoxville spoke about the fallout from the stunt.

"I got a brain hemorrhage from that. So my cognitive abilities were in steep decline after that hit," he revealed.

The star went on to say that his family don't want him to keep risking his neck, saying: "No one in my family is happy with the stunts and the bull hit was the worst hit I've ever taken from a bull or, maybe, period. Like I said my cognitive abilities really declined."

To illustrate just how bad the brain damage was, Knoxville recounted a visit he paid to the doctors.

"I remember taking some tests, the neurosurgeon said 'do you have trouble paying attention right now?' I said 'yeah, why?' He goes: 'Because you scored a 17 on my attention... that's out of 100,'" he said.

"I laugh now, at the time I was like 'oh no'. Because, you know, I had to go under all these types of treatments, this transcranial magnetic stimulation which they buzz your head with these magnets for about 30 minutes at a time for like, I would say, 10 to 12 treatments over a series of two months," he continued.

Check out Knoxville's interview below:

"It was a tough one to come back from. I was trying to edit the movie at the time and I couldn't sit still," the star added.

Knoxville went on to talk about how the injury had taken a toll on his mental health, saying: "I did slip into a little bit of a depression with this last concussion, that hasn't happened before."

He got so low that he even started therapy and - for the first time in his life - antidepressants.

But thankfully, Knoxville revealed that the treatment had helped him turn a corner.

"It completely turned me around, that and doing therapy. It was a really hard recovery... but I'm great now. I feel like I'm the healthiest I've ever been," he said.

Even so, it looks like Jackass Forever might be Knoxville's swan song to daring stunts.

"I knew going into this film that after this I can't put myself on the line with stunts that can forever change my life," he explained, before saying that the life-threatening bull injury had put things in perspective even more.

"After the bull hit, I'm like I think I've done enough, right? I don't have anything to prove and I still have control of all of my faculties," he said.

All that being said, he is set to enter WWE's Royal Rumble match this weekend.

Jackass Forever is due to be released on February 4.

Featured Image Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy