“Deadliest Catch” star Todd Meadows told his children he was “being safe” just moments before he fatally fell overboard while filming the series.
Producers divulged the before and after of Meadows’ tragic Feb. 25 death after falling off the Aleutian Lady in Alaskan waters of the Bering Sea during Friday’s episode — while steering clear of the incident itself.
In one segment during the Season 22 finale, Meadows promised his son during a FaceTime call with his family that when he returned home, they’d go on a salmon fishing trip.
“I hope you’re being safe,” his daughter said in the clip. “If you’re not being safe, you better be safe.”
He hauntingly replied, “Oh, I’m being safe.”
Meadows also told producers during a confessional that it had “been one of [his] dreams and goals” to join the crew, adding, “That’s why I’m up here to make it and to try to support my family.”
He told producers that leaving his children — aged 1,2 and 4 at the time — to work on the boat for the series was a “heart-wrencher” because the youngest don’t understand why he’s gone.
The anguished moments following Meadows’ fall into the sea were subsequently shared, with the scene cutting to Captain Rick Shelford — after hearing screams — asking crew members, “Everybody OK?”
“No,” the crew responded, explaining there was a man overboard, to which Shelford immediately turned the boat around and ordered the team to be ready to pull Meadows out of the water.
After being informed that a man was overboard, Shelford ordered crew members to pull Meadows up and perform CPR. He’d been in the water for 6 minutes and 26 seconds before being pulled unresponsive from the Bering Sea.
From off camera, the captain could be heard uttering, “Come on, man, come on,” before calling the Coast Guard.
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A producer told an extremely emotional Shelford, “He’s gone, Rick.”
Shelford initially announced Meadows’ tragic death in an emotional social media post in March.
“February 25, 2026, was the most tragic day in the history of the Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea,” he wrote at the time. “We lost our brother, Todd Meadows.”
Calling Meadows “family” and praising his “strong work ethic,” Shelford also mentioned the late TV personality’s children.
“Todd’s love for his children, his family and his life was evident in everything he did,” he wrote in the post.
“He worked hard, loved deeply and brought joy to those around him,” Shelford continued. “Right now, our hearts are broken in a way that words can’t fully express.”
Fellow “Deadliest Catch” deckhand Trey John Green III told Page Six exclusively in March that the waters were “calm” and “only a degree or two above freezing” at the time of the fatal incident.
His castmate was “in the right place at the right time” and “doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing,” Green insisted, adding, “It’s one of those things that none of us really understand.”
Meadows died of “drowning with probable hypothermia” and “submersion of body in cold water,” a death certificate obtained by TMZ revealed.
Meadows’ mother, Angela, previously pleaded with the network not “to air any of that footage or make money off of our son’s death.”
The family reportedly obtained a lawyer in order to potentially launch a wrongful death lawsuit, TMZ claimed in April, though it remains unclear legal action materialized.
A GoFundMe for Meadows’ family has since raised more than $85K out of a $90K goal, with the episode about the tragic accident bringing newfound awareness to the reality star’s death.
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