Hayden Panettiere: Actress dies aged 36

Image source, Variety via Getty Images

Stars of cinema and TV, and Hayden Panettiere’s fans, have been leaving tributes on her final Instagram post.

Shared on 27 July, the post shows Panettiere sharing a hug with director Randall Slavin.

In the captions below, American actress Selma Blair – known for roles in Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde and the Hellboy franchise – writes: “I love you. Don’t be gone. Please.”

Actor Beverley Mitchell, who featured in US television series 7th Heaven, comments: “Praying the news is wrong! You are such a bright light and soooo loved”.

US entertainment journalist KJ Matthews has been speaking to our colleagues on the BBC News channel.

Matthews calls Hayden Panettiere’s death a “huge shock”.

Three months ago, Panettiere released a memoir titled This Is Me: A Reckoning, for which she had a press tour scheduled.

“People were rooting for her and really thought this year was going to be her year,” Matthews says, adding:

“She wrote the memoir, she was doing a press tour, she was out there talking about how she had a great relationship with her daughter and that she had worked out so many of her addiction issues.

“So to hear this news… is really just shocking.”

A blurb for the memoir on publisher Headline’s website says the book sees the star “opening up about postpartum depression, addiction and recovery, trauma, domestic abuse, and loss”.

Yang Tian
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Beginning her career as a child actor, Hayden Panettiere was just four years old when she was cast on the popular US soap opera One Life to Live.

She later rose to fame playing Claire Bennet in the popular sci-fi series Heroes, which ran from 2006 to 2010.

Panettiere’s career spanned three decades with a string of roles in other hit TV shows and films, including the Scream horror franchise and the romantic comedies Raising Helen and I Love You, Beth Cooper.

Earlier this year, she released a memoir titled This Is Me: A Reckoning, recounting the struggles of growing up as a child actor and her experiences with addiction, abuse and later recovery.

Panettiere is survived by her daughter Kaya with her former partner, Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko.

Image source, Reuters

Hayden Panettiere’s father, Skip Panettiere, has described
his “profound sadness” at his daughter’s death.

In a statement, which has now been shared with the BBC, he says:

“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.

“We ask for privacy as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss.”

Actress Hayden Panettiere, who starred in TV shows Heroes and Nashville has died aged 36.

Announcing her death in a statement reported by the BBC’s US partner CBS News, her father Skip Panettiere describes her as “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”.

She began her career as a child actor, and was just four years old when cast on popular US soap opera One Life to Live.

Panettiere went on to play a cheerleader with superpowers in Heroes – which ran from 2006 to 2020 – and had other memorable roles, including in films Remember the Titans and Raising Helen.

The details surrounding her death were not immediately available. We’ll have reaction through the morning.