Hayden Panettiere's emotional reason she gave up custody of daughter, 11, to ex Wladimir Klitschko

Actress Hayden Panettiere revealed the real reason that she gave up custody of her only child and opened up on 'missing her so much my heart aches'.

The death of the US actress, famed for appearances in the Scream movies as well as Nashville, was confirmed by her representatives on Monday (17 August).

Meanwhile a heartbreaking statement from her father Skip said: “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.”

No cause of death has yet been officially announced, however TMZ reported that police had been called to an incident involving the actress on Sunday and that there is now an 'open investigation'.

The 36-year-old began acting as a child, appearing in soap operas before gaining wider recognition for her role in the 2000 sports drama Remember The Titans alongside Denzel Washington, and as the voice of Dot in Pixar’s 1998 film A Bug’s Life.

Panettiere later found fame playing cheerleader Claire Bennet in the superhero drama Heroes before going on to star as up-and-coming country singer Juliette Barnes for six seasons on the hit TV series Nashville.

"I know how blessed I am to be her mom"

However months before her death, she opened up about her life experiences, including battling addiction and postpartum depression, as well as the shock death of her brother and giving up custody of her only daughter, 11-year-old Kaya, to the girl's father - former heavyweight world champion boxer, Wladimir Klitschko.

She had released a memoir titled This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she also told of being 'groomed' as a child actor.

It was these struggles that the star said helped her make the difficult decision to give up custody of her child who she shares with her former partner and professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko, in 2018.

Panettiere first entered treatment when Kaya was four months old and was diagnosed with postpartum depression, later using alcohol and opioids and having stints in rehab.

Speaking on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast just weeks ago, Panettiere said she was initially against the idea when her ex-partner suggested it.

“That was incredibly difficult. The fact that my child wasn’t going to be with me all day every day was just ... you can’t put words to it,” she said.

However, she changed her mind after realising how stressful it was for the youngster to travel back and forth between the US and Ukraine, where she was living her father, and seeing what a ‘beautiful life’ she had out there.

Despite living apart for years, Panettiere wrote that her bond with Kaya remained 'incredibly strong' in her honest memoir. In it, she wrote: “Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life.

"It’s hard to describe the layers of emotion - including sadness, resentment, and anger - I’ve felt because of it.

“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.”

"She didn’t ask to be born into the limelight or my chaos, and she didn’t get to choose her parents. I want her to have every choice that I didn’t, including the ability to live a private life.”

Continuing to discuss her decision to sign over custody, she penned: "I remember every second of that day. No mother could forget a single thing about the day she signed her child away."

"I prayed for my daughter to be OK"

In one of her final interviews before her death, Panettiere also spoke to parenting outlet Momé for its July cover. In it, she discussed the life-threatening birth of her daughter.

After the birth in 2014, Panettiere recalled haemorrhaging before she underwent seven blood transfusions and surgery to repair vessels that had begun to fail.

She said: “I closed my eyes and just prayed for my daughter to be OK. I truly was ready to go if it was my time. Kaya being safe and healthy was all that mattered.”

However, days later she recalled feeling 'nothing' when looking at her daughter and developed postnatal depression. The actress then turned to drinking.

She said: “I turned to wine, which ultimately ended up leading to an alcohol dependency. It was how I would get through each day."

Although she underwent treatment, Panettiere felt the 'root cause' of her drinking, the depression, was not addressed. “I wish more people had known what it was at the time. Maybe I wouldn’t have waited so long to get help,” she said.

Eight years on from giving up custody, she told the publication where the two stood now. She explained: “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."

The actress went on to say she had 'been able to put her first no matter how I’ve felt or what I’ve experienced' and that she hoped that one day Kaya would 'understand my story and why I wasn’t able to be with her all the time'.

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.”