“I can hopefully leave the world a better place than I found it,” Hayden Panettiere said months before she unexpectedly lost her life.
The 36-year-old actress had shared a final Instagram post on July 27. But it was likely never meant to be a farewell post.
To fans, the post seemed like one of the last glimpses of a Hollywood star, whose turbulent life was cut heartbreakingly short.
Hayden Panettiere’s final Instagram post has taken on a heartbreaking significance following her sudden passing
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Hayden Panettiere lost her life at the age of 36, with no information disclosed on the cause of her passing.
She and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson, who was once arrested for having a physically altercation with her, reportedly flew from Los Angeles to the south on Saturday.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” read a statement shared by her father, Skip Panettiere. “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.”
Mitchell Haaseth/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
The bereaved father asked for privacy while their family “takes time to process this unimaginable loss.”
Her cause of passing was not immediately clear, but authorities confirmed that cops responded to an incident involving the actress.
“There’s an investigation ongoing,” her publicist said in a statement to NBC News. “We should know more tomorrow.”
“Good times and good friends @randallslavin,” the 36-year-old actress wrote in the caption
Weeks before Panettiere’s passing, she shared an Instagram post on July 27, offering no hint that it would be her last.
She was seen smiling alongside photographer Randall Slavin in a black-and-white photograph, seemingly sharing a fun memory with him.
“Good times and good friends @randallslavin,” she wrote in the caption.
Selma Blair was one of the first celebrities to pay tribute to the late Nashville star
Actress Selma Blair, 54, was one of the first celebrities to pay tribute to the late Nashville star.
She commented on Panettiere’s final Instagram post, saying, “I love you. Don’t be gone. Don’t be gone. Please. Please.”
She posted another comment 11 minutes later, saying, “I love you whale tail my friend.”
“I’m dy*ng. Please be here,” read another comment that appeared minutes later.
Panettiere had stepped back into the spotlight in recent months to promote her May memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.
The book became a bestseller, reaching No. 4 on the New York Times list, and Panettiere openly discussed her experiences with add*ction, depression, ab*sive relationships, motherhood and the pressures of growing up in Hollywood.
Her acting career began at the age of 4 after being cast in the soap opera One Life to Live.
The former child star revealed she began taking “happy pills” at just 15 to seem more “peppy” in interviews
Since then, she landed several other big roles in movies and shows like A Bug’s Life, Remember the Titans, Ally McBeal, Malcolm in the Middle, Ice Princess, and the Scream franchise.
Her role on the show Heroes propelled her to fame at the age of 16 and led her next hit show Nashville.
But early fame came at the cost of being using illicit substances from the age of 15 years.
She claimed she started taking “happy pills” to seem more “peppy” in interviews, and her add*ction became worse after the birth of her daughter Kaya Klitschko in 2014.
She openly spoke about battling postpartum depression and alcoholism in her memoir, admitting she “felt nothing” in the labor room when she first laid eyes on her newborn baby.
“I wasn’t OK,” the actress wrote. “I had to figure out how to bond with her. It felt like an insurmountable task, and I was only on the first day.”
“It wasn’t panic that was sitting in my chest. It was nothing. A total blackout of emotion, like my soul was de*d,” she added.
Months after her daughter’s birth, the Nashville actress began drinking from 6 a.m. in the morning to function
About four months after the grueling labor, she began relying heavily on alcohol
“The first thing I’d thought of when I woke up was alcohol. Not my child, not my job, and not the rest of my life. I needed a drink to function — at 6 a.m.,” she wrote.
Panettiere eventually got help and gave up custody of her daughter to the child’s father and her ex-fiancé, heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.
She said she “desperately” needed help at the time but didn’t want Kaya to feel “abandoned.”
“The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be okay with it is heartbreaking. Couldn’t be further from the truth,” she said on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast.
“I was struggling with mental health and anxiety and postpartum and having to act my way through it, and just feeling like I completely lost myself,” she added.
After her relationship with Klitschko came to an end, Panettiere began dating on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson in 2018.
He was arrested for domestic violence after an alleged physical altercation and reconnected with her after being released from prison in 2021.
Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson was once arrested for being in a physical altercation with her
“Man, I mean, I think it speaks for itself…I got arrested for ab*sing her,” Hickerson told TMZ in May this year. “And I wouldn’t blame her friends for being pissed off at me. “So I don’t really have much to say on that.”
He said they have “been together for eight years,” and he’s had “a couple opportunities to apologize” and “reflect” on the incident that landed him in jail.
“You’d have to ask her what she thinks about it, but you know…you never lay hands on a woman. Bottom line,” he added.
During her final months, Panettiere said she was glad she opened up about her life struggles.
“So many people have have come up to me within the industry and outside of the industry and shared their stories with me and said, ‘Because you’ve talked about your mental health, it gave me the courage to be honest about mine and get myself help and you saved my life,’” she said at a book signing in May.
“I was like, ‘This is worth it,’” she added. “I can hopefully leave the world a better place than I found it.”
“I am genuinely so heartbroken,” one fan commented, “Hayden, you carried me through my childhood”
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