Jamie Lynn Spears breaks down about daughter’s ATV accident: ‘We thought she was gone’

Former child star Jamie Lynn Spears got emotional this week while speaking about the near-death experience her daughter, Maddie, had in 2017.

“My oldest daughter ... she was in a really bad accident,” Spears, 29, said, beginning to tear up on Thursday’s “Better together with Maria Menounos” webisode. “And at that time, I was just about to release new music and really go full force ... and then one day, we’re at my in-laws and ... with every safety measure that could be taken, she just somehow or another drove into the water and we dove in and we we were unable to rescue her.”

Once the family removed Maddie from the water, the “Sweet Magnolias” actress said first responders took over.

“We thought she was gone,” Spears said. “We thought we’d lost our daughter, and so, that moment I felt everything that you can feel, I think, as far as the worst. This is the worst. There is nothing worse than looking at your child and feeling like you failed her.”

She added that she feared Maddie thinking “that I couldn’t save her, that I didn’t try and save her.”

After a firefighter told Spears they’d gotten a pulse, Maddie, who turns 12 next month, was airlifted to a hospital.

“We got there,” Spears said. “She wasn’t responding to anything. And so, it was not looking good for us. So then, I just said … ‘I really want my priest to come in here and I just really want her to be prayed over.’ That was really important to me. And the doctors had, like I said, not been getting a response from her, any pain ... And she’s got something breathing for her.”

Eventually, the family’s priest was allowed into the ICU and, as he “went to put the oil on her and read the rites,” something changed.

“She sat up and started kicking, her hands and started grabbing all the things, and they came and they tied her down,” Spears explained. “And then she went back into complete … whatever. But that was our first sign that she was there. ... In that moment, spiritually, mentally, everything changed."

Since the accident, which Spears regards as having “faced my worst fear,” the little sister of pop star Britney Spears approaches life differently.

“What else can I mess up or do wrong that’s gonna be as horrible as that? Nothing,” she said. “God gave me the blessing of giving me my daughter back. I lost her and I got her back. ... And for so many, that’s not the case. So I’m not allowed to waste a day on this earth complaining or being ungrateful."

Maddie suffered no lasting damage as a result of the accident and has recovered fully.

“That’s kind of unheard of,” said the “Zoey 101” star. “It’s gotta mean something.”