Jamie Lynn Spears Tears Up as She Shares Heartbreaking Details About Daughter Maddie's ATV Accident
Jamie Lynn Spears is opening up about her daughter's near-death experience.
The country music singer and actress, 29, shared terrifying details about her 11-year-old daughter Maddie's 2017 ATV accident during Thursday's episode of Better Together with Maria Menounos.
Speaking candidly about the harrowing incident, Spears got emotional as she recalled how things were "not looking good" when Maddie was admitted to the hospital, revealing that a priest was in the middle of reading her child's last rites when Maddie suddenly became responsive again.
“My oldest daughter was in a really bad accident," she began, explaining that Maddie was riding on an ATV near her family "with every safety measure that could be taken" when she "somehow or another, drove into the water."
"We dove in and we were able to rescue her," she said. "When we were finally able to get her out of the water ... and the first responders took from me, we thought she was gone. We thought we lost our daughter."
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"That moment, I felt everything that you can feel, I think, as far as the worst," the mom, who also shares 2-year-old daughter Ivey Joan with husband Jamie Watson, continued. "There's nothing worse than looking at your child and just feeling that you've failed her. And I didn't want her to think that I couldn't save her."
Spears said a firefighter was finally able to get a pulse, though Maddie's condition looked grim at the time and the young girl had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital.
"She wasn't responding to anything and so it was not looking good for us," she recalled, telling host Maria Menounos that she remembers asking for a priest to be let into the intensive care unit to pray for her daughter in what she described as a "worse case scenario."
"He went to put the oil on her and read the rites and she sat up and started kicking, and her hands started grabbing at all the things," Spears said. "That was our first sign that she was there."
The Zoey 101 alum said "everything changed" for her as a parent in that moment.
"I’ve faced my worst fear now. What else can I mess up or do wrong that will be as horrible as that? Nothing. There's nothing," she shared. "God gave me the blessing of giving me my daughter back. I lost her and I got her back."
"So I don't get to make any excuses. I've been given the best the biggest blessing you can be given," Spears added. "I'm not allowed to waste a day on this earth complaining or being ungrateful."
The mother of two commemorated the “miracle anniversary” of the accident in February, writing on her Instagram: "3 years ago today, Super Bowl Sunday fell on February 5th, and I’ll never forget that, because it was the day my whole world stopped.”
A post shared by Jamie Lynn Spears (@jamielynnspears) on Feb 2, 2020 at 2:37pm PST
“It started like most Sundays, going to church, visiting family, to suddenly trying to save my daughter’s life, to them taking her away, to us believing we had lost her forever, and it literally felt like the world stood still around me," she wrote. “I have never spoken fully in detail about that day, and the events that followed, but what I will share is that God blessed us with a true miracle. Maddie not only stayed here with us, but she made a full recovery.”
Sharing photos of Maddie on her hospital bed after the accident, Spears said in the post, “I know so many of you prayed so hard for us, so I will never let this day pass without thanking each of you for every single prayer you said for us, and I hope you all know we do not take this huge blessing we were given for granted, because most are not as fortunate, and we are fully aware of that horrible and unfair fact.”
“I am filled with gratitude today, and everyday [sic], even on the bad days, because even those days are a gift, that so many others would give anything for just to have their loved ones back,” the star added.
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“Let’s all be thankful for the tiny miracles in our lives every day, that we may take for granted, because it could all change in a second. Thank y’all for always being there for me and my family, we appreciate you and love you so much. #MiracleAnniversary.”
Better Together with Maria Menounos is live every Monday to Thursday at 11 a.m. PST on Menounos' YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. The show is also available on iTunes.
