Brooke Shields Tearfully Recalls Accident + Femur Injury: "I Am So Happy to Be Alive"

After the 2021 actress and model Brooke Shields has had, she only had one thing to say to Rachael: "I am so happy to be alive!"

And that's not an understatement. Not only did Brooke, like all of us, endure the pandemic, but at the end of January, while balancing on a balance board (something she's done many times before), she accidentally fell and snapped her femur in half.

After that came surgery, which resulted in two rods and 14 screws between her hip and her knee.

All the while, she was surrounded by COVID-19 patients. "Seeing the tragedy [up close] and hearing the stories—and [my injury] not being associated with that—there was this guilt, too, because I didn't have COVID and I felt so terrible for the people who lost loved ones," says Brooke.

Beyond that, she knew how frightened her children were for her. "My daughter asked me if I was going to die," she tells Rach, tearing up.

Nevertheless, she says, "I was trying to keep everything into perspective. It was the worst injury I ever had, but I was still counting my blessings that I was able to be taken care of."

Holding on to that silver lining, Brooke and her doctors were determined to get her out of the hospital and into rehab, and once she got there, she says, she put her whole heart into healing. "You'd be so surprised how powerful your body is and how much it wants to heal," she says.

You're an inspiration, Brooke! Hear more about her recovery in the video above. Plus, check out the global online community she just launched for women, Beginning Is Now.