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Heidi Klum on Rescuing Son Henry From Drowning: “It Was So Scary”

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Ellen presents Heidi Klum with a hat for her 40th birthday party.

Heidi Klum is a survivor — and so is her 7-year-old son, Henry. On the Friday, April 12 episode of Ellen, the supermodel and America's Got Talent judge, 39, went into detail about her family's Easter Sunday on the beach in Hawaii — when Henry and three adults nearly drowned thanks to a dangerous riptide.

Related: PHOTOS: Heidi's amazing body evolution

"We had an awesome holiday until the last day. We had been swimming all week. Everything was beautiful," recounted Klum, who spent the vacation with boyfriend Martin Kirsten plus her four children Henry, Johan, 6, and Lou, 3 and Leni, 8. "Beautiful weather and on the last day when my son and three grown ups were in the water and all of the sudden one of those riptides came and took my son and everyone into the water and they couldn’t get back out. It all happens so fast."

As documented in dramatic photos, Klum and Kirsten both saved the day. "It was so scary. I mean it happens in a second," she told Ellen DeGeneres, snapping her fingers.

Related: PHOTOS: Heidi's best Halloween costumes

Henry, Klum's eldest son with with her ex Seal, actually fared better in the water than the adults, she said."To be honest, he is a really good swimmer. He is very strong, and I guess because he is really athletic he knows how to swim so well.  [Henry] said, 'Well, you always told me when you're in the water you have to be really calm and you can't stress out and that's what I did.'"

Regardless, the Project Runway hostess is thanking her lucky stars. "It took four seconds and he was out, but the grown ups, it was really hard for them to get back out. The waves were just all of the sudden taking them deeper into the ocean. It's really wild."

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