Hayden Panettiere, Scream and Nashville Actress, Dies At 36...

In a statement shared with media, Hayden Panettiere's father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed her death. “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” the statement reads. “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.” Further information on her death was not provided. According to TMZ, Panettiere and boyfriend Brian Hickerson had traveled from Los Angeles to a southern state on Saturday; the actress reportedly died the next day. Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989, in Palisades, New York. Eleven months later, she was a working actress, appearing commercials before her first birthday. By 1994, she had joined the cast of soap operas including One Life to Live and Guiding Light, but it was her role in Heroes, as an indestructible high schooler, that made her a household name in 2006. She followed that success with roles on musical drama series Nashville and on the big screen in films including Scream 4 and Scream VI. Offscreen, she was open about her battles with substance use disorder and postpartum depression following the 2014 birth of her daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, with then-fiancee Wladimir Klitschko. “This hasn't been easy and there were a lot of ups and downs," she said in 2022. "But I don't regret even the ugliest things that have happened to me. I feel incredibly accomplished. And I feel like I have a second chance.” In May, she added author to her resume, with the publication of memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning. In the book, she detailed the challenges she faced in Hollywood, including harassment from high-profile figures while she was in her teens. “One of the things that I was most terrified about, when deciding whether or not to write this book, was that I knew what was going to come along with it,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I had to sit with myself and make a decision, and I realized it was more important for me to share my stories and to wipe the slate clean.” Speaking with Vanity Fair in 2023 during the promotional cycle for Scream VI, Panettiere alluded to those struggles, drawing a comparison between her popular character, Kirby Reed, and her own life. “We both have been through trauma, and the way that we handle trauma is something that we have in common,” she said. “We don’t crumble—we find the light and we come out. It’s all or nothing, dukes up.”