Jeremy Renner "wasn't supposed to make it" after his snowplough accident.
The 53-year-old actor spent two weeks in hospital with critical injuries, breaking more than 30 bones in the near-fatal incident near his Nevada home last January, admitted he only felt like he had "got the wind knocked out of" him when he was crushed, but things were far more serious, which was kept hidden from his and ex-wife Sonni Pacheco's 10-year-old daughter Ava at first.
Appearing on 'The Kelly Clarkson Show', Jeremy said: "To me, it felt like maybe I just got the wind knocked out of me, but I did break 38 bones, my eye came out of my head, [I] crushed my skull. It was pretty terrible.
""[I] got through it, so that's really all that matters at the end of the day.
"The initial 14 days, it was a lot of life support. I wasn't kind of supposed to make it. [Ava] was hidden from all of that. I even forgot about my daughter. That's how messed up I was after the accident."
When the 'Mayor of Kingstown' star was discharged from hospital, things hit home when he was told Ava was waiting to see him.
Jeremy said: "That's when my life support really kicked in, because my daughter is my life force. It's everything.
"I saw the fear in my daughter's face for the first time. That's when I was looking in a mirror, like, 'Ah, I must look pretty terrible.' I was a hot mess.
"The reality of what transpired really set in, what I'd done to my daughter, what I actually did to my nephew, my whole family, that really set in."
At that moment, Jeremy made a promise to his only child that he would make a full recovery and be "better" than before.
He said: "I asked her to wait for me. I said, 'These are just 38 broken bones, darling, and they're all going to heal. I promise, if you wait for me, I will be better, I will be faster, I will be stronger than you've ever seen before. I promise. You have to wait for me.'"
On the anniversary of his accident, Jeremy released his first single, 'Wait', and he admitted making music has been "very cathartic" for himself and his family.
He said: "My daughter plays piano [and I wanted to] get her involved in the process, turn it into something positive.
"That's what I've always been trying to do since the accident. Music was a great outlet."
