Hayden Panettiere Dead at 36

Aug 17, 2026 - 07:09

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Hollywood is remembering Hayden Panettiere.

The actress—known for her roles in Nashville and Heroes—has died, her rep confirmed to multiple outlets Aug. 16.

"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," her spokesperson said in a statement. "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 cause of death was not shared.

After playing Claire Bennet on Heroes from 2006 to 2010, Panettiere was cast as Juliette Barnes on Nashville opposite Connie Britton, earning her two Golden Globe nominations while starring on the show from 2012 to 2018.

Panettiere has shared that during filming, she struggled with alcohol use and opioid addiction and also faced a near-death experience while giving birth to her and ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko's daughter Kaya in 2014.

"I was sitting there and getting the C-section, and I knew that I was knocking on death's doorstep," Panettiere told E! News in May. "I just had the most motherly moment though, where I said, 'God, please let me hear my daughter cry. I just want to know that she is OK and if it's my time to go, I'm OK with that.'"

The Remember the Titans actress subsequently struggled with postpartum depression and decided to give up custody of Kaya in 2018, so that her daughter, then 4, could live in Europe with Wladimir, a boxer from Ukraine, while she underwent treatment.

"I don't ever want her to feel like the postpartum depression aspect was her fault in any way," Panettiere said. "I want her to take away that it's OK to be imperfect and flawed, and you'll actually realize that you're not alone in any of your struggles and you don't have to stay quiet and be sick like I was."

However, she has pushed back on claims that she "abandondoned" Kaya, now 11, by relinquishing custody.

"The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be OK with it is heartbreaking," she said on an episode of the On Purpose podcast in May, denying the "misconception is that I have been in the past forced into treatment when, in fact, I have been the one who sought it out."

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Following her time on Nashville, Panettiere ended up taking a four-year break from acting, ultimately returning to the screen in Scream 4 in 2023.

“I had taken four years off. Didn’t know or plan to, but that’s just the way it panned out,” Panettiere told Us Weekly in April. “And I desperately needed it.”

She said the hiatus allowed her to approach her career from a “different place in life."

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images

In the weeks prior to her death, Panettiere was navigating another family loss, cancelling an appearance at a horror convention in Ontario, Calif., in July due to "an emergency," Creep I.E. Aftermath shared in a statement on its Instagram account.

Panettiere’s rep later told People she was handling "a private family matter concerning the health of an elderly relative."

More to come...