Jamie Lynn Spears' Daughter Maddie Addresses 2017 ATV Accident for 1st Time

Jamie Lynn Spears’ eldest daughter, Maddie Watson, is publicly addressing her near-fatal ATV accident for the first time in eight years.

“I did have an accident, though. I was in a coma and I came back to life, and I’m very blessed,” Maddie, 17, said in a YouTube video posted on Tuesday, August 12. “I’ve just been very accident-prone. I swear my parents are amazing, and they did not do anything to me.”

Maddie, Spears’ daughter with ex-boyfriend Casey Aldridge, was riding an ATV in February 2017 when the vehicle flipped over and into a pond. Maddie was knocked unconscious and remained underwater for several minutes. She was later airlifted to a local hospital in Louisiana for treatment. (Maddie lives in Louisiana with her mom, stepfather Jamie Watson and her half-sister, Ivey.)

Maddie eventually made a full recovery after a five-day hospitalization, and Spears, now 34, celebrates the “miracle” anniversary of her daughter’s recovery every year.

“I’ll never forget that, because it was the day my whole world stopped,” Spears wrote in a February 2020 Instagram post. “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.”

The Sweet Magnolias actress added, “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. 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.”

Maddie had never spoken about the incident until her YouTube debut, which she recently started as a way to “document [her] senior year” of high school.

“I feel, like, when I’m older and I’m looking back or maybe even my kids are looking back, they can understand how I was when I was younger and how my senior year went,” Maddie explained. “The reason I started [this account] was because it was my senior year.”

Spears, for her part, praised Maddie’s vulnerability in sharing her story.

“What was supposed to be a fun way to document her senior year on @youtube has now turned into a way for her to share the not so fun parts of life, too,” Spears wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, August 13. “You can work so hard, and do everything right, yet still face adversity, no matter what path you’re on in life. You can’t control everything that happens to you, but you can decide how you react to what happens to you.”

She continued, “I know being a resilient person is one of the best qualities a human can have, but it’s only earned by having no other choice but to be resilient. Gotta trust God’s plan. I’m so proud of this kid; she never lets anything or anyone sit her down, and sharing her journey through it all hopefully inspires others to never stop going hard for what they want out of life.”