Joe Jonas says a frightening accident during a vacation in Italy left him thinking immediately about his two daughters.
The Jonas Brothers singer, 37, fell into the water while trying to step from a yacht onto a smaller transfer boat during a trip to Portofino. A wave pushed the vessels apart as Jonas moved between them, sending him into the water along with a first mate who had tried to catch him, according to People.
Jonas escaped with a bruised shin and eventually pulled himself onto the smaller boat. Although he initially told everyone he was fine, the emotional impact caught up with him a couple of hours later.
Once the adrenaline subsided, Jonas said he wanted to speak with daughters Willa, 6, and Delphine, 4, whom he shares with ex-wife Sophie Turner.
Jonas Fell Between the Yacht and the Transfer Boat
Jonas recounted the accident with Morgan Stewart during the Sept. 23 episode of The Morgan Stewart Show. Stewart was on the Portofino trip with Jonas, his girlfriend Tatiana Gabriela and Jordan McGraw.
The group was preparing to visit a waterfront restaurant that required guests to transfer from their yacht to a smaller boat. Jonas said the water was rocky, causing the tender to repeatedly move toward and away from the yacht while crew members tried to keep it steady.
A first mate held Jonas by the arm and told him when to step. As Jonas moved forward, a wave pushed the smaller boat farther away.
“It was terrifying because then I slipped and fell between these two boats,” Jonas recalled.
The first mate went into the water while attempting to grab him. Jonas surfaced fully dressed with his phone still in his pocket and realized he needed to get away from the space between the moving vessels.
Morgan Stewart Feared One of the Boats Would Hit Him
Stewart was standing directly behind Jonas when he fell and said she became frightened that the smaller boat could move toward him and strike his head.
“Vacation’s over. Vacation’s over,” she remembered thinking. “It’s going to hit him in the head, and we’re going to lose a Jonas Brother.”
Crew members suggested that Jonas swim toward the back of the yacht, but he was concerned about the engines and instead tried to climb onto the tender.
His first attempt ended with him hitting his shin and falling back into the water. On the second try, Jonas managed to roll himself onto the smaller boat.
People around him repeatedly asked whether he was injured, and Jonas initially assured them that he was fine.
Jonas Says He ‘Needed’ to See His Daughters
A couple of hours later, while the group was at the restaurant, Jonas said the adrenaline finally wore off and he told Gabriela how badly the accident had frightened him.
“That really spooked me for a while,” he recalled.
His thoughts then turned to Willa and Delphine. “I just need to call them. I need to see them. I need to see their faces,” Jonas said, according to E! News.
Jonas said the experience reminded him how quickly a serious accident can happen when someone loses awareness of what is happening around them.
“You realize it could have been any of us,” he said. “It could have been really bad. It was the best outcome of a bad situation.”