Fighting back tears, actress Hayden Panettiere told an interviewer in May that she felt like she had “a lot more life to live” three months before news broke Sunday of her death at 36 years old.
“Let’s see where my life is going to go, because I finally feel like I have shaken all of this darkness and negativity, and that means I’ve closed one door and another door is opened, and I can feel it opened,” Panettiere told interviewer Jay Shetty during a two-hour podcast in May. “I feel like I have a lot more life to live.”
The interview was part of the actress and singer’s promotional tour for her memoir “This is Me: A Reckoning,” where Panettiere opened up about entering rehab for alcoholism.
The “Heroes” star wrote in her memoir that her alcohol addiction was so intense that she would develop jaundice.
“At least my eyes aren’t yellow,” Panettiere remembered telling herself while dealing with withdrawal symptoms during an eight-month stint in treatment in 2020. At the time, a doctor told the actress that if she didn’t stop drinking, she’d be “dead within five years.”
Panettiere’s father, Skip, and representatives confirmed her death Sunday night, though a cause of death had not been announced.
“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,” Skip Panettiere said in a statement.
Having appeared on TV and in movies since she was around six years old, Panettiere had 74 acting credits to her name, according to the online database IMDb.com.
She became best known as the star of NBC’s “Heroes” from 2006 to 2010 and as a country singer on ABC and CMT’s “Nashville,” which aired from 2012 to 2018 and earned the actress two Golden Globe nominations.
“Save the cheerleader, save the world,” became a rallying cry for network TV viewers during the mid-2000s as Panettiere’s seemingly invincible character on “Heroes” ran into burning buildings and jumped in front of explosions to save civilians.
Her acting career came to a halt around the time of her treatment, which Panettiere said wasn’t a conscious decision but one that “simply happened.”
Appearing in four movies during the 2020s, Panettiere reprised her part as Kirby Reed in the sixth “Scream” movie in 2023. Her most recent credit was for a horror movie called “Sleepwalker,” released in January.
Panettiere is survived by a daughter, Kaya, who is now 11 years old. According to Panettiere’s memoir, her daughter had been living with her former fiancé, Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko, since 2018.
Hayden Panettiere’s brother, Jansen, died at 28 in 2023 from heart problems. In her memoir, Hayden described Jansen as a “little brother by chance and a best friend by choice.” The final sentence in her book was the actress thanking her brother for making her laugh and “for being my best friend, always.”
