Hayden Panettiere was given ‘happy pills’ for red carpets when she was just 16 years old
An old interview in which Hayden Panettiere claimed that she was given 'happy pills' before red carpets has resurfaced in the wake of her death.
Yesterday, it was revealed that the actor had been found unresponsive at an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina. Further details released by local law enforcement stated that Panettiere had received 'advanced cardiac life support' after going into a suspected cardiac arrest.
A cause of death has not been released, however it is currently believed that no foul play was suspected in the 36-year-old's passing.
Panettiere's death has led to renewed interest in her troubled experience in the spotlight, with a 2022 interview in which Panettiere claimed she was given 'happy pills' as a teenager resurfacing online.
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Speaking about growing up in the limelight in an interview for Red Table Talk, Panettiere recalls being offered pills from 'Mexico' to help her get through extensive promotional interviews for Heroes.
"It must of been something that was similar to an adderall, but they got it from Mexico," the actor told hosts Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, adding that she was told it would give her 'energy'.
"They were to make me peppy during interviews," she continued. "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."
The Nashville actor went on to reveal that she'd later asked for the pills for 'personal use'. "Somebody else found out and let me know how bad that was, she added.
Hayden Panettiere's struggles with addiction
Panettiere's death came just months after the release of her explosive memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, which saw the actor detail her troubled upbringing in the spotlight.
She also spoke candidly about her battle with addiction, telling PEOPLE that as she got older, drugs and alcohol felt like something she 'couldn’t live without'.
Her struggles would later get worse after the birth of her daughter Kaya - with ex-partner Wladimir Klitschko - when she developed post-partum depression, as well as being prescribed opioids for an 'old neck injury'.
Panettiere entered rehab treatment for her addiction in 2020, revealing the painful withdrawal in her memoir.
"As my nervous system tried to regulate itself without the depressant effects of alcohol, it went into overdrive, and my whole body shook," she wrote, adding: "I couldn’t sleep, and my head pounded like it was pressing against my skull."
The actor went on to reveal that she'd been warned by a doctor that she would be 'dead within five years' if she didn't stop drinking.
Hayden Panettiere's family calls actor an 'incredible light'
A statement released to PEOPLE on behalf of the actor's father, Skip Panettiere, called the Scream VI star an 'incredible light and a force of nature'.
"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," the statement read.
"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."
A timeline of Hayden Panettiere’s troubled Hollywood career
August 1989
Hayden Panettiere is born to firefighter Skip Panettiere and Lesley Vogel, who would go on to be Hayden’s manager.
1990
Panettiere appears in a commercial at 11 months old, later landing recurring roles in soap operas as a child actor.
2004/2005
Aged 15, Panettiere said someone on her team started offering her ‘happy pills’. She later tells People: “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.”
2006
Aged 17, Panettiere lands one of the defining roles of her career as Claire Bennett in Heroes.
2007-2009
Panettiere later reveals several disturbing incidents that happened during this period in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning.
Aged 18, she claims she was led onto a yacht by ‘somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector’ and placed into bed next to an ‘undressed man who was very famous’.
In 2008, she alleged a network executive kissed her on the lips at a party.
Aged 19, she said a ‘well-respected, award-winning actor’ tricked her into looking at his testicles through an unzipped fly.
In 2007, she also starts dating Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia - she is 18 and he is 30. They split in 2009.
2009
Panettiere starts dating Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
Meanwhile, her father Skip is handed two years of informal probation after pleading ‘no contest’ to spousal battery.
2013
Panettiere and Klitschko get engaged.
December 2014
Panettiere and Klitschko’s daughter Kaya is born. Panettiere endures an incredibly difficult pregnancy, haemorrhaging during her c-section and being forced to undergo a three-hour surgery.
2015
Panettiere begins suffering severe post-partum depression. She later tells Jay Shetty on his On Purpose podcast: “I knew something was terribly, terribly wrong. I wasn't connecting with [Kaya] the way I should be.”
She uses alcohol to manage her mental health struggles and enters treatment when Kaya is four months old.
She later says she became dependent on medication to sleep, and then turned to drinking vodka.
2018
Klitschko presents Panettiere with custody papers asking for full custody of Kaya. After initially fighting back, she eventually accepts and Kaya goes to live with Klitschko in Ukraine.
She writes in her memoir: “Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life”
Meanwhile, her long-running role in TV show Nashville comes to an end and she doesn’t have any more TV or film roles for five years.
In the same year, she starts dating actor Brian Hickerson.
2020
Panettiere spends an eight month stint in rehab.
She experiences brutal alcohol withdrawal symptoms including insomnia and intense headaches.
Meanwhile, her now-ex Hickerson is charged with felony assault.
2021
Hickerson pleads no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse/cohabitant/girlfriend/child's parent and is sentenced to 45 days in jail and four years probation.
2023
Panettiere returns to acting, reprising her role as Kirby Reed in Scream VI.
In the same year, her brother Jansen dies aged 28 from an enlarged heart.
May 2026
Panettiere releases her memoir in which she makes disturbing allegations against film stars and industry execs from when she was a teenager.
She also opens up on her experience of postpartum depression and comes out as bisexual.
August 2026
Panettiere tragically dies. Police say: “The preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.”
Topics: Celebrity, Drugs, Entertainment, Hayden Panettiere
Brenna Cooper