Hayden Panettiere shared optimism for her future months before her death aged 36
Three months before her tragic death, Hayden Panettiere vowed she had 'a lot more life to live'.
The actress' passing, at age 36, was announced last night (16 Aug) by her father in a statement to ABC News.
"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," Skip Panettiere told the news outlet. "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."
Lastly, he asked that her family be afforded privacy as they 'take time to process this unimaginable loss'.
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No cause of death has yet been announced.
In light of her passing, several videos and transcripts from Panettiere's final interviews have been circulating on social media, during many of which she opened up about her personal struggles.
The Bring It On actress appeared on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast back in May, where she reflected on a few years of 'darkness', during which she battled addiction and mental health issues.
On the episode, Panettiere spoke optimistically about the years ahead, claiming she'd 'shaken off all of this darkness and this negativity'.
"I’ve closed one door and another door is opened," she continued. "I can feel all the exciting possibilities.
"I feel like I have a lot more life to live."
Previously on the show - during which she promoted her harrowing personal memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning - Panettiere touched upon the loss of her younger brother, Jansen, and the custody arrangement for her 11-year-old daughter, Kaya.
The youngster lives full-time with Panettiere's ex-husband, boxer Wladimir Klitschko, in Ukraine.
She claimed the decision had been spurred by love for her child, given that she'd struggled with 'years of battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse'.
"The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be OK with it is heartbreaking," Panettiere explained.
She also called out the 'misconception' that she was 'forced into treatment' for substance abuse in the past, when, in fact, she had been 'the one who sought it out'.
"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."
The TV star - who began her career as a child actor - entered rehab in 2015, while filming Nashville, she told Women's Health in 2023.
Speaking to Shetty, however, she insisted she was 'just trying to find my way back, my way out of the darkness'.
"By the time I finally got healthy, I felt like it would have been unfair of me to and selfish of me to, try to pull her out away from this life that that she had," Panettiere continued.
Rhianna Benson