Jeremy Renner’s daughter was forced to “grow up in a lot of ways” after he was almost killed in a snowplough accident.
The ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ actor, 53, was pulverised by his hulking 14,300lb PistenBullly machine as he was helping his nephew dislodge a stuck vehicle from the snow on New Year’s Day 2023 – leaving him with 38 broken bones, a collapsed lung and massive chest trauma that took him months to fight back from.
He has now told Parents about how the accident and his recovery sparked a “role reversal” between himself and his 11-year-old daughter Ava: “I became the kid for the first six months. My daughter had to take care of me.
“There was something quite beautiful in that role reversal. She had to grow up in a lot of ways. I overcame a lot of obstacles and got to show my daughter what resilience means by going through this journey with me.”
Jeremy, who has Ava with his actress ex Sonni Pacheco, 36, added he doesn’t have a “bad day anymore” despite his gruelling recovery.
But he added about needing his family’s support: “As any parent knows, it takes a village.”
Jeremy went on about having a support structure in his life: “I think it’s very important to build one. You’re going to need many, many people – a cool uncle, a strong aunt – so that your kids have other voices in their lives that will be important to them and their perspectives.
“You can’t do it all for your kids 100 per cent of the time. As much as we want to, we can’t.”
He said his role as a dad has been “amplified” by her recent independencem adding: “I really understand my place as her father. It is my duty to teach her how to love, how to be strong, how to overcome.
“Leading by example has always been important to me. That’s only amplified.
“My love is deeper, my conversations with my daughter are more adult. I now struggle to find the fun, goofy dad version that I was when she was four or eight.
“I have a harder time with that because I’ve been through some physical struggles. I just struggle to find the energy to be the jungle gym dad. But she’s 11. Maybe I don’t need to.”
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