Hayden Panettiere, who passed away at the age of 36, spent the most of her life in the limelight, from her success as a child star to her leading parts in popular TV series Nashville and Heroes, but she also had to deal with the difficulties that came with being famous.
At the age of eleven months, Panettiere made her debut in a commercial. Her daughter followed in the footsteps of her mother, actress Lesley Vogel.
At four years old, Hayden appeared in the American television series One Life to Live. At eight years old, he joined Guiding Light, another soap opera.
Although she had a natural talent for acting, her budding youth career came at a price.
In her candid autobiography, This Is Me, which was released earlier this year, Panettiere writes, “I lost the chance to have a normal childhood, friends, relationships, and my privacy from a very young age.”
She told the Hollywood Reporter that she was “groomed” to be an actress. “I was and always have been like a tiny soldier. No was never an option.
Getty Images Three adult co-stars of One Life to Live are holding and posing with four-year-old Hayden Panettiere.
Panettiere’s career took off, and in 1998 she was cast as Princess Dot’s voice in Pixar’s A Bug’s Life.
Who Was Hayden Panettiere? Career and Rise to Fame
She claimed that “over 20 years later, these injuries still bother me” after suffering a back injury while filming Racing Stripes, a children’s movie about a zebra that believes it is a racing horse, in 2005.
“Save the cheerleader, save the world” was Heroes’ motto. She also featured in the 2006 cheering comedy Bring It On: All or Nothing, the third installment in the Bring It On movie series.
She became even more well-known in 2006 when she starred in the enigmatic television series Heroes.
In the show’s “save the cheerleader, save the world” premise, Panettiere played Claire, a cheerleader who regenerated if she was physically hurt. Her performance was likeably sparky.
How Heroes Made Hayden Panettiere a Star
When it debuted, the actress was 17 years old, and her notoriety brought with it unprecedented levels of attention, including swarms of paparazzi.
She said that in an attempt to elicit a response, they kicked her and yelled “appalling” things, and one headline featured an image of her apparent cellulite.For years, I battled body dysmorphia because I thought there was no way to avoid the dreaded cottage cheese thighs, regardless of how young, slim, or powerful I was.
A publicist once gave her a “happy pill” to help her act on a red carpet. She described it as “the gateway drug that ushered me toward the good of pharmaceuticals and the downfall of addiction” in the end.
Panettiere Spoke About Harassment in Hollywood
Panettiere began dating Milo Ventimiglia, her co-star from Heroes, when she was eighteen. Despite this, she continued to experience sexual harassment in Hollywood.
When a TV producer kissed her on the lips at a party in 2008, Ventimiglia informed her it was “completely inappropriate” even though she originally dismissed it as innocuous.
She later claimed that a guy she called “an Oscar-winning actor and director” exposed himself to her. She said that when he informed her that he had gum on his pants, “this well-respected, award-winning actor’s testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly” when she glanced down.
On another occasion, while on a yacht, she was led into bed with an unidentified, nude “famous thirtysomething British singer-songwriter” by someone she considered a friend.
Panettiere Faced Postpartum Depression and Addiction
When Panettiere was 19, she met Ukrainian boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko at a party in Los Angeles, and they started dating. They had a daughter five years later, and he was thirteen years her senior.
She suffered greatly from postpartum depression following the delivery. “I never felt any hostility or negativity toward my child, thankfully, but I wasn’t connecting with her the way that I knew I should be, and I was full of stress and anxiety all the time,” she told Jay Shetty on the podcast.
She was consuming a lot of alcohol. “What I was doing to suppress those emotions was not normal and it was not healthy.”
Panettiere Opens Up About Losing Custody of Her Daughter
Klitschko assisted in getting her treatment, but when their daughter was three years old, he urged Panettiere to hand over custody because he was concerned about the girl’s drinking while she was with her mother.
After acknowledging that her daughter Kaya “needed to feel at rest, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally,” Panettiere, who had reacted violently and contemplated a court struggle to keep their daughter, ultimately consented.
“Being away from her every day has been the most heartbreaking experience of my life, and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion, including sadness, resentment, and anger I felt because of it,” she wrote.
Hayden Panettiere's Role in Nashville Reflected Her Life
I’m sad that I’m not the mother I want to be and certainly not the mother I imagined I would be. I promise that no one should ever have to use FaceTime to raise a child.
In her most recent autobiography, she stated that “despite it all, the bond I have with Kaya is incredibly strong” and continued to be active in her daughter’s life.
In 2017, Panettiere was photographed promoting the show alongside Nashville co-star Charles Esten.
At the same time, Panettiere was receiving praise for her portrayal of troubled country singer Juliette Barnes in the six-year-long TV drama Nashville, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes.
Panettiere Faced Abuse, Loss and a Return to Acting
She met Brian Hickerson, her new lover, just before Nashville’s production concluded. Later on, he became aggressive; according to Panettiere, he would smack her head against the wall and once battered her face so severely that she was unable to leave her home for weeks.
In her 36 years, she faced more challenges than most, and she tried to deal with them by writing her book, which was released in May.
She concluded by assuring readers that she had learned to “walk hand in hand with my triumphs and my tragedies, because they have made me who I am” and that she had come to terms with her past while maintaining optimism for the future.
