Jeremy Renner chokes up as he reveals he wrote goodbye letter to family during snowplough accident

Marvel star says he ‘surely would have’ died had he been alone during accident

Jeremy Renner was convinced he would die and wrote his family a goodbye note during his horrific snowplough accident earlier this year.

On New Year’s Day, the Avengers star was rushed to hospital after being crushed by a large plough outside his home in Nevada. At the time, he was attempting to save his nephew from being hit by the vehicle.

Renner sustained blunt chest trauma and later revealed he broke more than 30 bones in the accident. He also suffered a collapsed lung and had his liver pierced by a shattered rib.

The actor, who is currently learning to walk again, has now taken part in his first interview since the accident with Diane Sawyer for ABC News.

In a teaser for the interview, which will air in full on Thursday (6 April), Renner said that he had remained awake and in pain throughout the accident.

“If I was there on my own, it would have been a horrible way to die. And surely I would have. Surely,” he said. “But I wasn’t alone, it was my nephew, sweet Alex, and the rest of the cavalry came.”

The Hawkeye actor explained that he was so sure his death was imminent, he wrote down his last words in his phone for his family to find.

“So I’m writing down notes on my phone, and last words to my family,” Renner recalled, before tearing up and telling Sawyer: “Sorry.”

The interview will also see Sawyer in conversation with Renner’s nephew Alex, who admitted that he had thought his uncle had died upon seeing the accident.

“I just perfectly see him in a pool of blood coming from his head. I ran up to him, I didn’t think he was alive.”

Renner told Sawyer: “I’ve lost a lot of flesh and bone but I have been refueled and refilled with love – and titanium.”