Hayden Panettiere, who has died at the age of 36, made a heartbreaking admission about her daughter Kaya in what proved to be her final interview, published just weeks before her death. The American actress, known for roles in Heroes and Nashville, spoke about her decision to hand full custody of her daughter to former fiancé Wladimir Klitschko.
A Difficult Decision
In the interview with parenting outlet Momé, published last month, Panettiere said she knew she needed to give full custody to Klitschko in order to put her daughter first. "It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, nor was it a decision I even wanted to make," she said. "I was going through a really challenging time in my life. I knew I needed to be able to put her first so that I could get the help I needed and be the mum she needed me to be."
She added: "I love my daughter, and I’m so proud of the young woman she is becoming. I talk to her all the time, and I feel so connected to her. She’s like a mini-me."
Background and Relationship
Panettiere met Klitschko, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, at a book launch in 2009. They dated, split in 2011, and rekindled their relationship two years later. In October 2013, they got engaged, and their daughter Kaya was born in December of that year. The couple split again in 2018 but remained on amicable terms. That same year, Panettiere made the decision to relinquish full custody of Kaya to Klitschko due to her struggles with long-term post-partum depression and addiction.
Memoir and Family Tragedy
Earlier this year, Panettiere detailed her separation from Kaya in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning. She wrote: "Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life, and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion – including sadness, resentment, and anger – I’ve felt because of it." She also wrote: "I grieve that I’m not the mother I thought I’d be and definitely not the mother I want to be (trust me, no one should ever have to raise a child on FaceTime), and although I miss Kaya so much my heart aches, I know how blessed I am to be her mom. She is the greatest gift of my life, with all the best parts of her father and me."
Her father, Skip, paid tribute to her as an "incredible light and a force of nature" and said her death was an "unimaginable loss." Panettiere's death comes three years after her younger brother Jansen, also an actor, died at the age of 28 in February 2023 due to aortic valve complications related to enlarged heart syndrome.
