Hayden Panettiere died in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday, August 16. She was 36.
Hayden’s father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed the news to Us through a representative for the Nashville and Heroes alum.
“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,” Skip said in a statement. “We ask for privacy as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss.”
ABC News was the first to report on Hayden’s death. More details were not immediately available.
The actress is survived by her 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, whom she shared with ex-fiancée Wladimir Klitschko.
Born and raised in Palisades, New York, Hayden’s life in the spotlight began at just 8 months old when she signed with Wilhelmina Models. She was already appearing in commercials by the time she was 11 months old and became a full-time actress at age 5. She voiced Princess Dot in A Bug’s Life (1998) before starring in films and TV shows including Remember the Titans (2000), Ally McBeal (2002), Heroes (2006 to 2010), Nashville (2012 to 2018) and the Scream franchise (2011 to 2023).
Hayden extensively opened up about her life in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, released this past May.
Hayden Panettiere in ‘Nashville’. Bob D’Amico/ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection
In the book, she details years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of an ex, as well as rehab stints, alcoholism and undiagnosed postpartum depression after the birth of Kaya.
During a sit-down interview with Us in May to promote her memoir, Hayden revealed that the project, in which she also came out as bisexual, was “very scary” to complete.
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“I talk about traumatic moments and things that people don’t even know about. The abuse I went through at the hands of people that were supposed to be there to protect me. Admitting to all of the things that I did. I knew if I was going to do this, I wanted to be brutally, painfully honest,” she said at the time. “When I was honest about postpartum depression on Live With Kelly and Michael [in 2015], the repercussions were shocking. After that interview, I had no idea when I walked off that stage that I was going to get the call saying, ‘Neutrogena wants to fire you. They’re not OK with this.’ And you’re going, ‘Wait a second, of all the things, how can they judge me about something that is so human and so real?’”
The book also delved into Hayden’s relationship with her mother, Lesley Vogel, who also served as her manager, detailing the pressure she felt under her mom’s direction. “I feel like this is the first time [through the book] that I’ve been able to [talk to her]. I was so scared of her that approaching her and being honest about my feelings was not going to get me any positive reaction,” she told Us at the time. “This is my way of doing it.”
Hayden was predeceased by her brother, Jansen Panettiere, who died at age 28 in February 2023 from an undiagnosed heart condition. On what would have been Jansen’s 31st birthday last September, Hayden wrote via Instagram that she missed him “every single day.”
