The Voice coach will.i.am's near-death pool ordeal: 'They wrote that I had passed away'

Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, a mainstay on ITV's The Voice UK, has revealed the harrowing childhood accident that left him declared dead at the side of a swimming pool. The 51-year-old music producer, who continues to mentor aspiring singers alongside Kelly Rowland, Sir Tom Jones and McFly's Danny Jones and Tom Fletcher, nearly drowned as a ten-year-old in 1985 after defying his mother's strict instructions.

How did will.i.am nearly drown as a child?

Having never set foot in a pool before, young William James Adams Jr had no understanding of water depth. Assuming the water level matched his own height throughout, he walked straight from the shallow three-foot end into the nine-foot deep end and began to sink. He remained trapped underwater for up to four minutes before a friend pulled him out and administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Rushed first to Glendale Hospital and then to Children's Hospital, he spent roughly a week recovering. The terror etched on his mother's and uncle's faces, he later said, served as a lifelong warning against recklessness.

What did will.i.am say about being 'declared dead'?

Speaking to CNBC in 2014, the star gave a chilling account of the rescue. 'I accidentally wandered into the deep end, lost my footing and started to drown,' he explained. 'I was hauled out by lifeguards after four minutes and given CPR and they used defibrillators on me.'

His rescuers, he said, had given up hope. 'That didn't seem to work and they wrote on a piece of paper that I had passed away but then I came around.'

The emotional toll of rejecting young talent on The Voice

Beyond the poolside drama, will.i.am has spoken candidly about the anguish of turning away hopefuls on the show. 'That dream crush is like