Hayden Panettiere’s ups and downs in her own words

Ryan ColemanTue, August 18, 2026 at 1:53 PM UTC

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Hayden Panettiere at the ‘Blonde’ premiere in Los Angeles in 2022Credit: Jon Kopaloff/GettyKey Points -

Hayden Panettiere died on Aug. 16 at the age of 36.

Though she appeared in some of the most celebrated films and series of the past half century, from Heroes and Nashville to the Scream franchise, Panettiere also battled many demons.

Panettiere shared insights into her challenging relationship with fame, addiction, mental health, motherhood, and more over her lifetime.

The world shines a little less bright without Hayden Panettiere in it.

The celebrated star of series like Heroes, Nashville, and Ally McBeal, as well as films including two installments in the Scream franchise, Remember the Titans, and I Love You, Beth Cooper, died on Aug. 16 at 36.

Panettiere was discovered “unresponsive” and “in cardiac arrest” at her temporary residence in Greenville, S.C., on Sunday.

“EMS personnel initiated advanced cardiac life support measures; however, resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful,” the Greenville coroner confirmed to Entertainment Weekly,and a 911 call captured officials speaking about an apparent “overdose,” according to PEOPLE.

An investigation is currently underway.

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Panettiere released her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in May. She detailed there — in many cases for the first time — the myriad private lows that accompanied the high highs that defined her one-of-a-kind Hollywood career. But Panettiere was always candid about the struggles that too often accompany child stars long after they come of age.

Here are Panettiere’s ups and downs with fame, addiction, mental health, motherhood, and more — in her own words.

1990: First job at 8 months old

Panettiere was the daughter of actress Lesley Vogel, best known for her 1984 stint on the soap opera Loving, on which she played the wife of Panettiere’s future Malcolm in the Middle costar Bryan Cranston.

It was straight out of the gate for Panettiere, who landed her first modeling job at 8 months old, and her first acting role in a Playskool commercial three months later.

“I did my first commercial when I was 11 months old,” she told NPR earlier this year. She characterized starting in the industry at such tender an age as being “groomed” in This Is Me, writing, “I was like a little soldier and I always have been. No was never an option.”

1993: “A fate worse than death”

‘The Guiding Light’ stars Beth Chamberlin, Grant Aleksander, Hayden Panettiere, and Tina Sloan in 1997Credit: Arthur L. Cohen/CBS/Courtesy Everett

Panettiere’s career took off by the time she was 5. She landed her first significant role in 1994, when she was cast as Sarah Roberts on the daytime drama One Life to Live. She’d spend three years on the soap before moving on to another, Guiding Light, where she’d earn awards recognition for her performance as Lizzie Spaulding from 1996-2000.

A pattern began to form: Panettiere shone on camera, but suffered behind the scenes. She described bombing a 1993 audition as “a fate worse than death” in This Is Me, due to Vogel’s strict standard’s and crushing disapproval.

“When she was mad, she clenched her jaw. When she was so angry that my best option was to hide under my bed, her lower jaw migrated a few centimeters forward. I looked up and back at Mom, and there was that soul-shattering underbite,” she wrote.

2000: “The happiest I’d ever felt as an actor”

Hayden Panettiere and Denzel Washington in ‘Remember the Titans’ (2000)Credit: Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett

Panettiere thatched together a rich and varied career over the following decade, lending her talents to Disney comedies (Ice Princess), animated fare (A Bug’s Life — for which she became the fifth-youngest person to ever earn a Grammy nomination for its companion audiobook), gritty procedurals (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), and critically acclaimed dramas (Remember the Titans).

She recalled becoming “fast friends” with star Denzel Washington, whom she called “one of the kindest, most soulful people I’ve ever met” in This Is Me. Panettiere remembered her Titans experience as “the happiest I’d ever felt as an actor... If I could go back and do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat.”

2004: The beginnings of addiction

Hayden Panettiere in ‘Racing Stripes’Credit: Warner Bros.

A darkness descended on the actress in 2004, when Panettiere said she was first offered “happy pills” as a 15-year-old.

“They were to make me peppy during interviews. I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction,” she explained in This Is Me.

A perfect storm began brewing when, the following year, Panettiere was injured while riding a zebra for the family comedy Racing Stripes.

“I kept my mouth shut and endured the pain in my back and neck. Over twenty years later, these injuries still bother me,” she wrote in This Is Me. And the pain would later fuel relapses into addiction.

2006: Heroes breakthrough, paparazzi scrutiny

Hayden Panettiere in ‘Heroes’ season 1Credit: Michael Muller/NBC/Getty

Heroes’ runaway popularity bestowed upon Panettiere’s career the same power that her character on the show possessed: imperviousness. An imperial period began in 2006 that stretched through her run on Nashville, which wrapped in 2018.

With increased fame came increased scrutiny, however, and so began Panettiere’s battle against fame and its attendant horrors. An unflattering paparazzi photo published in 2006 haunted her for many years, she revealed in a 2012 interview.

“It gave me such body dysmorphia for so long... But I remember reminding myself that beauty is an opinion, not a fact. And it has always made me feel better,” she said at the time.

2008: Dad’s domestic dispute

Lesley Panettiere, Jansen Panettiere, Hayden Panettiere, and Skip Panettiere in March 2008 in Los AngelesCredit: Frank Micelotta/Getty

It wasn’t just Vogel who vexed Panettiere, but her father, Alan “Skip” Lee Panettiere, who was arrested in 2008 at the family’s Los Angeles home on suspected felony domestic violence.

Alan was ultimately charged with misdemeanor battery for allegedly assaulting Vogel, and pleaded no contest the following January, receiving two years probation and an order to attend domestic violence counseling.

2009: Falling in love with Wladimir Klitschko, birth of their daughter

Wladimir Klitschko and Hayden Panettiere in Miami Beach in 2016Credit: Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty

Panettiere met former professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko at a mutual friend’s party in 2008. The sparks were immediate, and the pair went public with their relationship in 2009. They dated on and off through 2013, when Panettiere announced their engagement. The following year, Panettiere gave birth to their daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko.

“We are over the moon and madly in love!” the former couple told PEOPLE after Kaya’s birth.

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2015-2016: Postpartum depression, relapse, and backlash

Hayden Panettiere and Jonathan Jackson on ‘Nashville’Credit: ABC

Years later, Panettiere would revisit the unseen darkness of that period in her life.

Panettiere nearly died while giving birth to Kaya in 2014, recalling, “I was sitting there and getting the C-section, and I knew that I was knocking on death’s doorstep.” A brutal experience with postpartum depression followed. “There was just this gray color in my life,” she recalled, leading her to cope by drinking.

“I was on top of the world and I ruined it,” Panettiere she said at the time. “I’d think I hit rock bottom, but then there’s that trap door that opens.”

Panettiere was in the thick of portraying the troubled and fiery Juliette Barnes on Nashville at the time. In a 2025 interview with Entertainment Weekly, she noted how her onscreen storylines began to mirror her offscreen life. Juliette herself struggled with postpartum after giving birth at the end of season 3, becoming a major arc for the character in the following season, which premiered in 2015.

“Like when I was dealing with postpartum depression — the fact that I got to go out there and had to perform through it — it was terrifying, and very emotional,” she said. “There was a lot that I related to, sometimes a little bit too much. It hit really close to home.”

Panettiere noted in a 2023 Women’s Health profile how the feelings of “extreme hopelessness” that defined the era, combined with her old neck injury flaring up, led her to relapse into opioid use. “My tolerance got so high so fast that it became a problem.” Panettiere ended up entering a treatment facility when Kaya was 4 months old.

Worse, when she spoke out about her postpartum, she says she experienced professional backlash. “Neutrogena wanted to fire me over that,” she revealed on The Jay Shetty Podcastin May. “I had worked with these people for 10 years. And I remember not hearing a word from anybody. Not a great working with you for for 10 years.”

2018: Separation from Wladimir Klitschko, custody dispute

Hayden Panettiere and daughter KayaCredit: Hayden Panettiere/X

Panettiere and Klitschko separated in 2018, with her depression being a major factor.

“‘I don’t know why you’re so unhappy. We have a nice life. You have a nice life,’” she recalled him telling her, prompting Panettiere to respond, “You think my depression is a choice?”

The actress was in recovery at the time of her separation from Klitschko and signed over full custody of Kaya to him.

“It was the hardest thing I could do,” she told PEOPLE in 2022. “But the best thing for my daughter was to make sure she was okay, take care of myself, and make sure I could be a good mom to her. And sometimes that means letting go.”

2018-2021: Abusive relationship with Brian Hickerson

Brian Hickerson and Hayden PanettiereCredit: Eric Charbonneau/Shutterstock

Panettiere’s life post-Nashville started looking bright when she met and fell for Brian Hickerson, whom she’d date on and off through 2021. But Panettiere later alleged that Hickerson physically and emotionally abused her throughout the relationship.

“I’ve always seen myself as such a resilient and strong woman. The idea that I could allow something like this to happen to me blew my mind. It blew the minds of the people that knew me best,” she reflected ahead of the publication of This Is Me. “So that whole experience, I kept as much of it to myself as possible because I didn’t want to drag anybody that I loved into [it]... It was humiliating.”

Hickerson was arrested for alleged corporal injury on a spouse/cohabitant, assault, and intimidating Panettiere after alleged incidents between May 2019 and June 2020. He served 33 days of a 45-day county jail sentence after pleading no contest in April 2021. Following his release, Hickerson told E! News in July 2021 that he and Panettiere were working on a friendship. “We have a long history together, and the first step in my recovery as an abuser is making amends. That’s exactly what Hayden has been gracious enough to allow me to do,” he said.

2022: Scream comeback, sobriety, and enduring bond with Kaya

Hayden Panettiere in ‘Scream VI’ (2023)Credit: Philippe Boss/Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group

After several years without steady acting work, Panettiere returned to one other signature roles: the headstrong and resilient Kirby Reed, whom she first portrayed in 2011’s Scream 4. Panettiere was officially announced as returning to the slasher franchise in 2022.

That same year, she told PEOPLE that she’d gotten sober, thanks to a combination of trauma therapy and inpatient treatment for addiction. Kaya “has a beautiful life” living abroad with Klitschko, she raved, noting that she “was just with her. She’s just an amazing child. She’s smart and she’s funny and for whatever reason, she still loves me.”

2023: The death of Jansen Panettiere

Hayden Panettiere and Jansen Panettiere in Hollywood in 2019Credit: Amanda Edwards/Getty

Jansen Panettiere, the actress’s younger brother, who worked as a model and starred on series like Even Stevens and Blue’s Clues as a child, died on Feb. 19, 2023. He was 28. The Panettiere family later revealed that Jansen died from cardiomegaly, commonly known as an enlarged heart.

His older sister stayed mum about his death for many months after, eventually sharing heartbreaking comments about his loss in September 2024.

“He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him,” Panettiere shared at the time. “When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul.”

2026: Memoir, comeback, and coming out

‘This Is Me: A Reckoning’ by Hayden PanettiereCredit: Grand Central Publishing

Pannetiere’s 2026 began as a banner year. The publication of This Is Me and its attendant press cycle saw the actress unburden herself of even more shocking and distressing experiences as a young woman in the industry: A well-known Oscar winner exposed himself to Panettiere when she was a teen at a party, she wrote. She was deeply betrayed by a friend who “put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous” during a soirée on a boat, and had become completely estranged from her mother.

But amid all the gloom, there was much to celebrate. Panettiere came out as bisexual.

“I’ve chosen to be completely brutally honest about this, and that’s something about me that I was never able to share with the world, because it was just never the right time,” she revealed in May. She was also able to reflect on wonderful working experiences with the likes of Cranston, Connie Britton, and Wes Craven.

An immense outpouring of grief immediately followed the news of her death. Friends, fans, and collaborators from Rosie O’Donnell and Viola Davis to Emma Roberts and Kim Cattrall shared tributes to the fallen star.

“I wish the world had more time with you because I had a burning curiosity about who you were becoming,” Davis, who starred with Panettiere in the films TheArchitect and Custody, wrote on Instagram. “Your tests became your testimony, and your testimony became your legacy. You will be remembered. Rest well, Hayden.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.

on Entertainment Weekly

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