American actress Hayden Panettiere dies, aged 36
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Details surrounding the nature of Hayden Panettiere’s death were not immediately available.
PHOTO: REUTERS
American actress Hayden Panettiere has died, aged 36, her representative confirmed to American news outlet ABC News.
No cause was stated, but Reuters reported that her death is being investigated, citing a statement given by her publicist Kasey Kitchen to broadcaster NBC News.
“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,” her father Skip Panettiere said in a statement quoted by ABC.
He also asked for privacy as their family “takes time to process this unimaginable loss”.
Panettiere was born on Aug 21, 1989, to actress Lesley Vogel and Alan Lee Panettiere, also known as Skip, who is a captain in the New York Fire Department. She was raised in Palisades, New York.
She started her career as a child actress when she starred in the American soap opera One Life To Live from 1994 to 1997.
She was later known for her roles in the TV series Heroes (2006 to 2010) and Nashville (2012 to 2018), as well as in movies such as Bring It On: All Or Nothing (2006) and Scream 4 (2011).
Panettiere earned two Golden Globe nominations, in 2013 and 2014, for her role as Juliette Barnes in Nashville.
In May 2026, she released a memoir titled This Is Me: A Reckoning, which chronicles her struggles throughout her long career. In it, Panettiere said that she suffered from body dysmorphia as a result of invasive tabloid press coverage when she was a teenager.
She was previously engaged to Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko. Their daughter, Kaya, was born in 2014.
Panettiere has said that she suffered from postpartum depression and used alcohol and opioids to self-medicate.
Klitschko asked for sole custody when Kaya was three. In May, Panettiere told The New York Times that she had eventually formed “an incredible bond” with her daughter, who lives in Europe.
Her younger brother Jansen Rane Panettiere died from heart complications in 2023, aged 28.
Information about her survivors was not immediately available, The New York Times said.
“We join in mourning the sudden passing of Hayden Panettiere,” the screen actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, which counted her as a member since 1994, said in a statement. “Our hearts are with her daughter, family, friends and fans.”
