Today the world mourns American actress Hayden Panettiere, who has tragically died at the age of 36.
She was the star of several popular TV series, including Heroes and Nashville, and her death will no doubt come as a painful shock to fans and the family she leaves behind. Her death was confirmed in a statement issued on Sunday evening, though the cause has not yet been confirmed.
"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," her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement.
The tragic news comes just three months after Hayden said she felt she had a "lot more life to live".
Speaking on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast, the mother of one opened up about her struggles, telling the host that she felt she had turned a corner in her efforts to shake off "this darkness".
© Getty ImagesShe said: "I finally feel like I've shaken off all this darkness and this negativity, and that means that I've closed one door and another door is opened and I can feel it open and I can feel all the possibilities, all the exciting possibilities."
"I feel like I have a lot more life to live."
The candid admission came just a few months before her passing, only adding further to the heartbreak of her untimely death.
Hayden Panettiere's career and life
Despite her great professional success, Hayden had previously spoken about her personal struggles with postpartum depression after the birth of her only daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, 11, experiences of abusive relationships, and losing custody of her child.
© TwitterShe detailed many of her struggles in her New York Times bestselling memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, published earlier this year.
Hayden's acting career began young, at just 11 months old, to be precise. She starred in a TV toy advert, later picking up her first role in a movie as the voice of Dot in A Bug’s Life, aged nine.
In 2000, she appeared in Remember the Titans, and two years later, she secured her first starring role in Tiger Cruise on the Disney Channel. Her career continued to flourish, and in 2006, at the age of 17, she starred in NBC's sci-fi drama Heroes, playing Claire Bennet, a high school cheerleader with the power to regenerate from injuries.
© Getty ImagesAfterward, she worked on Nashville between 2018 and 2018, her incredible performance earning her two Golden Globe nominations. It was during her time on the show that she gave birth to her daughter, Kaya Klitschko, whom she shared with her ex-fiancé, the Ukrainian heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko.
In 2018, she gave Wladimir full custody of their daughter to focus on recovering from depression and substance abuse issues.
In 2022, she said she didn't "know where alcoholism was ending, and the postpartum was beginning", adding that she had run herself "ragged". She was admitted to rehab in 2015, a decision she praised for helping give her a "second chance".
