Hayden Panettiere's relationships – And where she stood with her exes
Hayden Panettiere's relationships – And where she stood with her exes
KiMi Robinson, USA TODAYTue, August 18, 2026 at 1:30 AM UTC
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From her days as a child actor to her death at age 36, Hayden Panettiere's Hollywood career was intertwined with her personal life.
The Disney actress-turned "Nashville" star's private relationships were at times inextricable from her onscreen work. Her mother, former soap actress Lesley Vogel, was Panettiere's manager from when she was a baby until the actress ended their working relationship when she was 19, causing the two to become estranged.
As her TV career took off, Panettiere became romantically involved with fellow actors, including Milo Ventimiglia from "Heroes" and "One Tree Hill" star Stephen Colletti. Her most significant relationship was with Ukrainian boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, with whom she shared an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko.
Though Panettiere's most public relationships were with men, the actress revealed she was bisexual in her 2026 memoir, "This Is Me: A Reckoning." She opened up about having never fallen in love with a woman because she "didn't really have the courage to throw myself fully emotionally into it" and shared that going on dates with women was "scary" due to being followed by paparazzi.
Here are Panettiere's most notable relationships and where she stood with her former partners.
Wladimir Klitschko
Panettiere and Klitschko met in 2009, when the actress was 19 and the boxer was 32. She revealed their engagement on "Live with Kelly and Michael" in October 2013, and the following year they welcomed Kaya, who was born in December 2014 while Panettiere was on "Nashville."
The on-and-off couple had split for good by August 2018, when Klitschko was granted full custody of their daughter; the two live together in Ukraine. Panettiere's battle with postpartum depression and addiction influenced her decision to relinquish custody of Kaya, which she previously described as "hardest thing I could do."
Panettiere appeared to be on good terms with Klitschko in recent years, though she previously detailed the challenges she'd experienced in their relationship.
"I respect him for being such a driven human being and he's very positive. Athletes are very diligent," Panettiere said on "Red Table Talk" in 2022. "But he's also a man [and] doesn't have any sisters, so he really thought that I was doing it to myself and that I could choose to snap out of it."
In an interview with parenting magazine Momé published in July, Panettiere described experiencing a near-fatal birthing experience that required seven blood transfusions and two surgeries to save her from hemorrhaging. Postpartum depression manifested as her feeling "nothing" when looking at her newborn, and she turned to alcohol, and sometimes opiates, to dull this "empty" feeling, eventually forming a dependency.
After "feeling like I completely lost myself," as she described in a May episode of Jay Shetty's "On Purpose" podcast, she sought treatment for alcohol addiction.
"[Klitschko] and I are very close," Panettiere told Shetty when asked about their relationship, noting they are "still best friends." She continued, "There's not many people who know me in this world as well as he does. And I know that we still have an incredible amount of love for each other."
Brian Hickerson
Panettiere's relationship with Brian Hickerson, which began in 2018, involved Hickerson being arrested multiple times for alleged domestic violence, which Panettiere described in her memoir.
Hickerson faced a felony domestic violence charge and restraining order against the actress in 2019, though the case was dismissed because prosecutors "could not secure a material witness," the New York Daily News reported, citing a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Hickerson was arrested again in 2020 and was later sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading no contest to two felony counts of injuring Panettiere.
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"I am coming forward with the truth about what happened to me with the hope that my story will empower others in abusive relationships to get the help they need and deserve," she wrote in a statement posted to social media on July 17, 2020. "I am prepared to do my part to make sure this man never hurts anyone again. I'm grateful for my support system, which helped me find the courage to regain my voice and my life."
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Panettiere wrote that she feared calling 911 because "then the public would know" about the alleged abuse. "I've struggled with how to tell this because I don't want to be a spokesperson for domestic violence," Panettiere wrote. "I never wanted to call myself a victim, but here I am."
In a May interview with TMZ about the memoir, Hickerson confirmed the abuse and said that he's "had a couple of opportunities to apologize for it and reflect on it." He also said that he'd recently spoken to Panettiere about the memoir and was supportive of it.
Milo Ventimiglia
Panettiere starred on "Heroes" alongside Ventimiglia, who played hospice nurse Peter Petrelli, for four seasons. Their relationship turned romantic, as Panettiere explained in her memoir, while promoting Season 2 of the NBC show in 2007, when she had recently turned 18 and the "Gilmore Girls" alum was 30. They split in 2009.
"I was working with him all the time. My family knew him well," she told Entertainment Weekly in May. "At 18, I lived so much life that he almost couldn’t count me as being 18. So Milo and I, even though he was 30, had a lot more in common than people might think."
The breakup "was so out of left field," Panettiere told Us Weekly in a May cover story. "Nothing that big or explosive had happened. Nothing had really gone wrong. Nobody cheated."
Stephen Colletti
Panettiere and "Laguna Beach" star Stephen Colletti were linked together as she shot to stardom with "Heroes" from 2006 through 2007, and she recalled the relationship fondly in her May Us Weekly cover story.
"I’m so grateful that he was part of my life, especially when he was," she said. "Because when I was with him was when I started having to deal with paparazzi and tabloids and being the focal point of them."
"[He] was able to help guide me through that experience and getting used to that," she added. "I knew that there was a way to protect yourself and put up boundaries without being offensive or rude."
Their breakup was due to "going our separate ways" and involved "no drama," she told the magazine.
Contributing: Clare Mulroy
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Helpline at 800-662-HELP (4357).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hayden Panettiere's relationships – And where she stood with her exes
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