August 17, 2026 — 1:18pm
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Hayden Panettiere, an American actor best known for her roles in TV shows Heroes and Nashville, has died at age 36.
Panettiere’s father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed her death in a statement to several US news outlets on Monday. “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” he said. “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.”
Hayden Panettiere in 2022.Getty
Her father also asked for privacy as his family “takes time to process this unimaginable loss”.
Further details about her death, including the cause, are unknown. Panettiere’s publicist, Kasey Kitchen, told NBC News that her death was being investigated; however, it remained unclear whether she was referring to a coronial investigation into her death or an autopsy.
“There’s an investigation ongoing,” Kitchen said. “We should know more tomorrow.”
Panettiere began her career at the age of four, joining the soap opera One Life to Live as Sarah Roberts. She had previously featured in a toy commercial at just 11 months old. She went on to star in several television series and films, though she was best recognised as Claire Bennet in the popular sci-fi series Heroes, and as Juliette Barnes in Nashville.
Panettiere as Claire Bennet in Heroes.NBC/Michael Muller
Beyond those two series, she also starred in Raising Helen, Remember the Titans, Ice Princess, I Love You Beth Cooper and Scream 4.
Fellow actor Selma Blair (Legally Blonde) expressed shock over her friend’s death on Monday, commenting on the latest Instagram post Panettiere shared in late July: “I love you. Don’t be gone. Don’t be gone. Please. Please,” she wrote.
Earlier this year, the actor released a memoir titled This Is Me: A Reckoning. In it, she recounted the impact of being a child actor, her past alcohol addiction and giving up custody of her daughter in 2018.
Panettiere had one child, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, in 2014 with her now ex-fiance Wladimir Klitschko, a Ukrainian former professional boxer. Speaking on the Jay Shetty Podcast in May, the actor said she did not react well when Klitschko told her their daughter would live with him in Europe permanently.
“I was struggling with mental health and anxiety and the postpartum and having to act my way through it, and just feeling like I completely lost myself,” she said.
“I think a misconception is that I have been in the past forced into treatment when, in fact, I have been the one who sought it out – who was saying I desperately need help.”
She had fallen into a “horrible cycle” of depression, anxiety, alcoholism and substance abuse, she told the British podcaster, all in an attempt to “find her way out of the darkness”.
Panettiere entered an in-patient treatment centre in early 2020 where she worked on overcoming her opioid and alcohol addiction. She detailed her addiction and sobriety in a 2022 interview with People magazine.
“With the opiates and alcohol I was doing anything to make me feel happy for a moment,” she told the magazine. “Then I’d feel worse than I did before. I was in a cycle of self-destruction.
Panettiere with her daughter Kaya.ninevms
“[Now] it’s an everyday choice, and I’m checking in with myself all the time … But I’m just so grateful to be part of this world again, and I will never take it for granted again.”
The actor also shared her struggles with extreme anxiety following her brother Jansen’s sudden death at the age of 28. He died in 2023 due to a cardiomegaly (an enlarged heart) and aortic valve complications. This unexpected loss significantly impacted Panettiere, who told People she subsequently developed an extreme anxiety disorder called agoraphobia, something she had struggled with in the past.
Though she remained largely out of the spotlight for a few years, Panettiere re-emerged in May to promote her memoir. Around that time, she told Women’s Health that she had spent the past year recovering from an unexplained injury.
“I quite literally woke up and felt nothing but pins and needles from my waist down,” she told the magazine at the time. “I wasn’t able to bend my toes or lift my foot at all. No one was able to give me a solid answer.”
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Nell Geraets is a Culture reporter at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners