Actor Hayden Panettiere dies at 36
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Aug. 16, 2026, 11:28 PM EDT / Updated Aug. 17, 2026, 12:24 AM EDTBy Dennis Romero and Bill Feather
Actor Hayden Panettiere has died, her father said in a statement Sunday night. She was 36.
"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement provided by her representative.
The cause and manner of death were not provided. Her publicist, Kasey Kitchen, said Panettiere's death was being investigated.
"There's an investigation ongoing," Kitchen said in a statement. "We should know more tomorrow."
Panettiere revealed this year that she struggled with postpartum depression and addiction, which she said led to her decision to give up custody of her only child, daughter Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, in 2018, whom she had with former partner Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian professional boxer.
Panettiere recently published a memoir, "This Is Me: A Reckoning," which generated headlines over its revelations, including about her past relationships.
In 2024, she described pain and grief after her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, died unexpectedly of an undiagnosed heart condition the previous year.
"When you lose somebody that you saw in all the important moments in your life, standing right next to you, it just rocks your world," she told NBC's "TODAY" show.
The actor was born and raised in Palisades, New York, about 40 miles north of New York City, according to her Television Academy bio.
Panettiere started working at 11 months old, when she appeared in television commercials, it said.
She appeared on soap operas, including "One Life to Live" and "Guiding Light," beginning at age 4. Her voice was featured in "A Bug's Life," the animated feature, and she eventually appeared in big-screen stories, including "Remember the Titans" and "Bring It On: All or Nothing."
One of her most impactful roles was as Juliette Barnes on television's "Nashville." Before that, she was Claire Bennet on the 2000s show "Heroes."
Her time shooting "Nashville" included the pressure of having had a baby and experiencing postpartum depression, she said, and at times it was too much.
Hayden Panettiere as Juliette Barnes on "Nashville."Jake Giles Netter / CMT
"That's why I turned to substances — because the anxiety that I started having, the panic attacks that I started having," she said in a tearful interview on the Jay Shetty Podcast in May.
Panettiere said she always wanted to be a mother but discussed her sadness amid her postpartum depression battle.
"I had this beautiful plan in my head, and then I had my daughter and I knew something was just terribly, terribly wrong," she said on the podcast. "I was miserable. I was in tears all the time. Even though the alcohol helped my nervous system calm down, it is a depressant, so over time it made things worse, not better."
Despite being apart from her daughter after giving up custody to Klitschko, Panettiere told Shetty, she formed a strong bond with her child.
"I will always want her here. I always miss her," she said. "I always want to have my arms wrapped around her, but that's just not the way life is right at this moment."
She continued: "I have faith that she is going to come to me and that we're going to have an incredible relationship and bond and friendship that a lot of parents don't get to have with their kids."
In 2018, the year "Nashville" ended it six-season run, Panettiere sold her home in the namesake city.
Hayden Panettiere arrives at the amfAR Gala Los Angeles at The Pacific Design Center on Nov. 3, 2022.Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP file
Panettiere was a spokesperson for oceanic conservation group the Whaleman Foundation, appeared in the 2010 Oscar-winning documentary on dolphin slaughter, "The Cove," and received the Genesis Wyler Award from the Humane Society, according to the television academy.
"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," her father said.
Tags
Who is online
82 visitors
Damn shame. She was so beautiful and a good actress. I feel bad for her family
Never watched her as far as I know. Have heard her name now and then and remember it because its kind of unusual.
Celebrity leads some people to become obsessed with themselves and can lead to substance abuse and negative effects. There are many stories like this through the history of show business.
I think they just recently brought Heroes to Netflix so it was getting a lot of renewed interest. It's a fun show but the fire sort of runs out of gas by the end of the series.
I liked the first 2 seasons and then I got bored. But she was great in it as The Cheerleader
I used to love that show but then they had a writers strike and they got some other people to write for it and they screwed everything up, it went from a great show to garbage. Then the original writers came back and basically tried to continue where they left of ignoring everything the other writers had done which just made it a crazy confusing mess. It was weird and I just stopped watching and I'll never watch it again because it will just piss me off again.
I liked Heroes, and I, too, thought it got lost at/near the end. The show suffered from narrative 'entanglements' that could not be easily followed—especially after powers became "a dime a dozen," in my opinion.
Agreed. I see it in the Netflix line-up of shows and I do not plan to touch it. . . although character Peter Petrelli was a "dream". . . . I never could get the sense of "the cheerleader" saving the world and to be honest. . . I do not remember how "Heroes" ended. . . did it just come to a point and 'stop'?
"Seven Days" (time travel shown (NSA)) starring Johnathan LaPaglia ("dreamy") was good and then it just abruptly when 9/11 happened.
So that's what happened to it
I love time travel shows! Where can I find this one?
Sorry! It does appear that "Seven Days" is not available for viewing in complete episodes right now. Although, Youtube provides partial episodes! Great show (plot about the NSA using a time-travel window of 7 days to go back and correct some situational catastrophe that occurs in our day. . .
The show stops airing (cancelled) the week or thereabouts 9/11 occurred.