Staying strong. On the five-year anniversary of her daughter Maddie’s terrifying ATV accident, Jamie Lynn Spears is getting candid about how her faith kept her going.
“SWEET MAGNOLIAS going to #1 so fast was a real life dream coming true, but I must say, I do not think it’s a coincidence that today is also, the 5 year ‘miracle anniversary’ of our sweet Maddie’s tragic accident,” the Zoey 101 alum, 30, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, February 6, alongside throwback photos from the now 13-year-old’s hospital stay.
“Maybe, it’s just a little reminder to remain faithful through the good times and the bad times,” Spears continued. “I mean, I had nothing when I thought I lost my baby girl, so my faith was literally all I had left to cling to. I thank God everyday [sic] for the extraordinary medical professionals, all the prayer warriors, and the countless angels in heaven, and on earth who made our miracle possible.”
She added in her post: “Fast fwd to now, and I can’t even begin to explain all the ways, that this show and the many wonderful people who create this show have been a saving grace to me. I owe a HUGE Thank you to each and every person who is a part of the Sweet Magnolias family, especially the viewers🤍 I’m filled with so much gratitude today for a lot reasons, and I don’t ever want to take any of my many blessings for granted. I LOVE YALL🤍🤍.”
The Netflix star’s daughter — whom she shares with ex Casey Aldridge — was riding on an ATV in February 2017 when it flipped over into a pond. Maddie, then 9, was knocked unconscious after being submerged underwater for several minutes. She was airlifted to the local hospital and treated there for five days.
“It really was, like, to the point where the panic attacks were all-consuming, where I’m counting, I’m touching the doorknob seven times,” Spears opened up about the medical emergency last month during a Good Morning America interview, while promoting her Things I Should Have Said memoir and its chapter on the accident. “It was consuming my life to the point where it physically was taking over me. At the time, I took medicine and finally got to a place where I felt stable. I think that when your worst fear happens, you get a lot less afraid of everything else. … It made me reevaluate everything and who I was as a person and where I needed to be better.”
The Mississippi native, who said she was still “haunted” by the incident, added: “The biggest thought that I think stays with me is that when I was trying to save her — when I thought that I’d lost her — I was so afraid that her last thought was, ‘Why didn’t Mama save me?’ I just hope she knows that I was doing everything I could.”
The All That alum has gone onto star as Noreen Fitzgibbons on Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias, which premiered its second season on the streaming platform earlier this week. Alongside Spears’ return to the character of the pregnant pediatric nurse, her 3-year-old daughter Ivey — whom she shares with husband Jamie Watson — made a sweet cameo in one brief scene.
“In honor of #SWEETMAGNOLIAS BEING #1 TODAY!!🚨SPOILER ALERT🚨MAJOR GUEST STAR APPEARANCE IN EPISODE 6,” the “I Got the Boy” songwriter wrote via Instagram on Saturday, February 5, alongside footage of Ivey’s appearance in the sixth episode. “Yes, she was quite the DIVA, but the girl knows her angles, and can rock some pig tails like no other 👏🏻👧🏼💁🏼♀️.”
