Watch: Celebrity Deaths 2026: Catherine O’Hara, Eric Dane & More Fallen Stars
Hollywood is remembering Hayden Panettiere.
The actress—known for her roles in Nashville and Heroes—has died, her rep confirmed to multiple outlets Aug. 16.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” her spokesperson said in a statement. “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 cause of death was not shared.
After playing Claire Bennet on Heroes from 2006 to 2010, Panettiere was cast as Juliette Barnes on Nashville opposite Connie Britton, earning her two Golden Globe nominations while starring on the show from 2012 to 2018.
Panettiere has shared that during filming, she struggled with alcohol use and opioid addiction and also faced a near-death experience while giving birth to her and ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko‘s daughter Kaya in 2014.
“I was sitting there and getting the C-section, and I knew that I was knocking on death’s doorstep,” Panettiere told E! News in May. “I just had the most motherly moment though, where I said, ‘God, please let me hear my daughter cry. I just want to know that she is OK and if it’s my time to go, I’m OK with that.'”
The Remember the Titans actress subsequently struggled with postpartum depression and decided to give up custody of Kaya in 2018, so that her daughter, then 4, could live in Europe with Wladimir, a boxer from Ukraine, while she underwent treatment.
“I don’t ever want her to feel like the postpartum depression aspect was her fault in any way,” Panettiere said. “I want her to take away that it’s OK to be imperfect and flawed, and you’ll actually realize that you’re not alone in any of your struggles and you don’t have to stay quiet and be sick like I was.”
However, she has pushed back on claims that she “abandondoned” Kaya, now 11, by relinquishing custody.
“The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be OK with it is heartbreaking,” she said on an episode of the On Purpose podcast in May, denying the “misconception is that I have been in the past forced into treatment when, in fact, I have been the one who sought it out.”
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Following her time on Nashville, Panettiere ended up taking a four-year break from acting, ultimately returning to the screen in Scream 4 in 2023.
“I had taken four years off. Didn’t know or plan to, but that’s just the way it panned out,” Panettiere told Us Weekly in April. “And I desperately needed it.”
She said the hiatus allowed her to approach her career from a “different place in life.”
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
That next phase of life also included the release of her personal memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in May as well as a newfound understanding of her sexuality, as she came out as bisexual.
“Now that I know that this book is coming out, and that I’ve chosen to share it with the world, I’m comfortable to confidently say that yes, I am bisexual,” she told Us Weekly the same month. “I said it! This is the first time I got to say it out loud.”
Indeed, Panettiere—who previously dated Stephen Colletti and Milo Ventimiglia—felt it was “never the right time” to share her identity before then.
“It was either I was too young, and I was being forced to be perfect at all times,” she explained. “I was not encouraged to just be myself. Then came the period where it felt like people coming out, especially women, saying that they were bisexual or liked girls, was a fad.”
Instagram/Hayden Panettiere
However, the I Love You, Beth Cooper star also struggled with grief in recent years, including the death of her brother Jansen Panettiere in 2023 due to an undiagnosed heart condition, which she wrote in her book left her “riddled with guilt.”
The emotional turmoil also forced her to publicly respond to concerns about her health the following year, when fans speculated she had slurred speech in an interview.
“Grief looks different on everyone,” she wrote on Instagram in September 2024. “Whether or not I am on medication is none of anyone’s business and is between me and my doctor.”
“The real issue here is the toxicity of social media, and a news cycle that is driven by click bait,” she continued. “Mental health is so important, and I hope those reading this now understand that what you say hiding behind a computer screen can have a detrimental impact on someone.”
And in the weeks prior to her death, Panettiere had been navigating another family loss, cancelling an appearance at a horror convention in Ontario, Calif., in July due to “an emergency,” Creep I.E. Aftermath shared on its Instagram account.
Panettiere’s rep later told People she was handling “a private family matter concerning the health of an elderly relative.”
For a look back at her life in the spotlight, read on.
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Time Warner Cable
Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images
Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Roy Rochlin/FilmMagic
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
