Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Hayden Panettiere, a former child star actress who went on to play roles in the popular TV series “Heroes” and “Nashville,” has died aged 36. Her father confirmed the death in a statement to ABC News. “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,” he said.
Details about her death were not immediately made public, but she was found unresponsive on Sunday at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina. Born in 1989, Panettiere’s credits include “Remember The Titans,” “Ice Princess,” “Scream 4,” and “Scream VI.” She’d worked in Hollywood all her life, appearing in commercials at just 11 months and winning a Grammy nomination for voicing the “Princess Dot” character in the 1998 movie “A Bug’s Life” when she was nine.
Behind the successful career lay a dark personal history. In a memoir released in May, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” she described the pressures of being a child star and her experiences with alcohol and opioid addiction and recovery. Panettiere also spoke of estrangement from her mother, who managed her career as a child and criticized the book.
Paying tribute, actress Viola Davis, who starred alongside Panettiere in the 2016 movie “Custody,” referred to her struggles. Davis called her “an old, wise soul with such a deep heart” and said, “your tests became your testimony, and your testimony became your legacy.” “I wish the world had more time with you because I had a burning curiosity about who you were becoming. I saw this beautiful Phoenix rising from the ashes,” she wrote on Instagram.
Jay Shetty, a podcaster who interviewed Panettiere this May about her addiction history and the sudden death of her brother at the age of 28 in 2023, said he was in “disbelief.” “You were so special,” he wrote on Instagram. Panettiere had a daughter with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.
In one of her final interviews before her death, she told parenting magazine Mome last month that the extremely painful and dangerous birth had left her depressed and made her turn to alcohol. She then gave custody of her daughter to Klitschko. “I was going through a really challenging time in my life,” she said in the interview. “I knew I needed to be able to put her first so that I could get the help I needed and be the mom she needed me to be.”
In an interview with NPR radio in May, Panettiere said she was able to cry on cue just by channeling difficult emotions. The skill helped her career, but “the thoughts and the places that I had to go in my head became darker and darker.” “How could that not have an emotional impact over time on you?” she asked.
© 2024 AFP
