Hayden Panettiere revealed that a tough storyline on the hit series Nashville mirrored her own life, describing it as a "wow" moment. The actress, who died aged 36 at the weekend, said the series four storyline of the country music drama seemed like "a coincidence" as it followed a similar path to her life off screen.
Character Struggles Reflected Real Life
Hayden played Juliette Barnes, a country music starlet, on the production. Her character faced similar issues to the star did in real life. In her memoir, This is Me, Hayden did not shy away from tough topics, including her eventual drug and alcohol problems – and said it was a similar story for her character. The star's real-life pregnancy was also written into the show.
Speaking to NPR in May, Hayden said of the crossover: "Oh, I mean, it was everything. In the beginning, I thought, wow, this is just a coincidence [her Nashville series four storyline]. You know, whether it was the – in the beginning of playing Juliette, it was me struggling with a mother-daughter relationship, a very toxic mother-daughter relationship."
Blurring Lines Between Character and Self
She continued: "I thought that was just a coincidence. And then it started being dating, you know, football players. And then it went into postpartum depression and alcoholism and drug addiction and really, really dark subject matter that I was struggling with in real life."
"And having to go to set every day and play that out as her, I stopped being able to tell where the character started and where, you know, I ended. Like, we were just mushed together."
She previously told PEOPLE: "Those were really tough years." She had suffered from severe postpartum depression after her daughter Kaya was born. "I could relate to a lot of those storylines like the alcoholism and postpartum depression. They hit close to home," she went on.
Final Reflections Before Death
Hayden explained how her severe battles with alcohol and opioid addiction had worsened alongside postpartum depression. After seeking help and overcoming her addiction, she recently said she felt she had "a lot more life to live" in one of her final interviews.
She explained she felt she had escaped years of "darkness" just three months before her death. Speaking to Jay Shetty, she said: "I finally feel like I have shaken off all of this darkness and this negativity. I've closed one door and another door is opened … I can feel all the exciting possibilities. I feel like I have a lot more life to live."
Her death was confirmed in a statement by her father, Skip Panettiere, on Sunday. The details around her death are unknown. The statement, shared with American news network ABC, read: "It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her – and to the millions who watched her onscreen."
