Inside Hayden Panettiere's Final Days Before Her Death at 36

What Hayden Panettiere Said About Her Relationship With Daughter Kaya Before Actress' Death

At the very least, Hayden Panettiere got a chance to tell her story in her own words before her death at the age of 36.

The Heroes actress just published her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in May, a raw account of her life in which she detailed her struggles with postpartum depression, anxiety and substance abuse—all of which factored into her ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko getting sole custody of their now-11-year-old daughter Kaya in 2018.

"I don't know about if I would use the word closure quite yet, because I'm still talking about it and living these emotions and really trying to process them," Panettiere told E! News in a May 18 interview. "They're out of my body. They're on paper, and I just hope that they can help as many people as possible."

But any plans for her next chapter were tragically cut short on the afternoon of Aug. 16, when she was pronounced dead in Greenville, S.C., after suffering an apparent overdose and cardiac arrest.

In sharing news of her death, father Skip Panettiere called his daughter "a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her—and to the millions who watched her onscreen.”

Jeff Neira/Disney via Getty Images

And while Panettiere—who made her TV debut in commercials when she was 11 months old—talked candidly about "desperately" needing the four-year break she took from acting after her run on ABC's Nashville ended in 2018, she sounded ready to make it her day job again.

"I needed that break that I finally gave myself after so many years," she told E!, "but I also realized that idle minds are the devil's playground, and that is very true for me."

Brainstorm Media

She gave what turned out to be her final performance in the thriller Sleepwalker, which was released on VOD in January.

With a return to acting and writing her book checked off, her remaining "laundry list of aspirations," as she put it to the New York Times in May, included producing and directing, perhaps creating a makeup or jewelry line, and maybe even starting a lifestyle brand.

And she was trying her hand at writing a show, explaining to E!, "If I don't have an outlet—an emotional outlet—something to do, something to put my heart into, and something to be passionate about, then I end up self-destructing."

The Scream 4 star had been scheduled to appear at July's Creep I.E. Aftermath horror convention in Ontario, Calif., but, according to a statement on the event's Instagram, couldn't attend due to an unspecified emergency.

Grand Central Publishing

E! News learned Panettiere flew with Brian Hickerson from L.A. to his home state of South Carolina on Aug. 15. On and off since 2018, they seemingly split for good before he pleaded no contest in April 2021 to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or cohabitant, but he was soon back in her life, Panettiere telling the New York Times that their relationship was "contingent on him continuing on this road of recovery."

A 911 call summoned first responders to an address in the Judson Mill Lofts, a luxury apartment complex in Greenville, on Aug. 16 at 1:51 p.m.

Panettiere was temporarily staying in the residence where she died, according to the Greenville County Coroner's Office, which said in a statement obtained by E! that an autopsy performed Aug. 17 uncovered no signs of trauma that would have contributed to her death.

Cause and manner of death remain pending amid "active and ongoing" coroner and police investigations, the office said.

But Panettiere seemed to be celebrating life in her final weeks.

"Good times and good friends," she captioned her final Instagram post July 27, a photo of the actress with her director friend Randall Slavin.

Days before, she had highlighted her appearance on the cover of Momé's July issue.

"I had this great life, and was blessed in so many ways, but I felt empty," the Palisades, N.Y., native, told the magazine, reflecting on her crushing postpartum experience, which she dulled with wine before entering treatment.

"I wish more people had known what it was at the time," Panettiere shared. "Maybe I wouldn't have waited so long to get help."

Agreeing to let her daughter live with Klitschko in another country "wasn't a decision I made lightly, nor was it a decision I even wanted to make," she admitted. But "I knew I needed to be able to put her first so that I could get the help I needed and be the mom she needed me to be." 

They had developed a close bond all the same, Panettiere telling E! in 2024, "She's so me. But she's also a little bit more reserved. She's very independent, she loves to do her own thing."

As she told Momé, "I've been able to put her first no matter how I've felt or what I've experienced."

Raymond Hall/GC Images

And "one day she'll understand my story, and why I wasn't able to be with her all the time," the actress said. "You have to let go of what you wish you could change, and be present, and make the most of what you have now."

Having survived so much at this point, "I'm a warrior," Panettiere said. "I'm a woman who has been through more trauma than I ever thought I'd face, but I'm resilient."

She also described herself as a "work in progress."

"We all are," she added. "I take each day as it comes. I'm doing the work, and I'm doing my best."

Read on to see Panettiere's life in photos:

Photo by Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Photo by Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images

Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage

Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images

Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images

Photo by M. Caulfield/WireImage for ABC Cable Networks Group

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage

Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic

Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images

Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC/NBCUniversal via Getty Images