Aug. 16, 2026Updated Aug. 17, 2026, 1:24 a.m. ET
Hayden Panettiere, the former child actress best known for her roles in TV series like “Heroes” and “Nashville,” has died at 36.
Her representative confirmed her death in a statement to ABC News on Sunday, Aug. 16. TMZ was the first to share the 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 to ABC News. Her father asked for privacy “as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Panettiere’s representative for comment.
Hayden Panettiere cause of death: How did she die?
A cause of death has not yet been shared.
The actress, whose long and prolific career in TV and film began when she was a baby, had been vocal in recent years about her troubles with addiction and the effects of childhood stardom.
Hayden Panettiere movies and shows include ‘Scream’ and ‘Nashville’
A young blonde starlet with plenty of onscreen spunk, Panettiere held her own against top stars in her early career, starring opposite Denzel Washington in “Remember the Titans” and Calista Flockhart in “Ally McBeal.” Those early career moments also included roles in the soap opera “One Life to Live,” the crime procedural “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” and the animated film “A Bug’s Life.”
Her roles in Disney’s “Tiger Cruise” (2004) as teen military child Maddie Dolan and as rival ice skater Gennifer “Gen” Harwood in 2005’s “Ice Princess” brought her to the masses.
Panettiere’s death comes more than a year after the death of her “Ice Princess” costar Michelle Trachtenberg, who died at 39 in February 2025. New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner declared the cause and manner of Trachtenberg’s death as complications of diabetes mellitus.
Panettiere’s breakout starring role came as cheerleader Claire Bennet on NBC’s teen superhero drama “Heroes” and later as a country-pop singer in more than 100 episodes of “Nashville.”
She starred as Kirby Reed in the “Scream” slasher film franchise, appearing in 2011’s “Scream 4,” 2022’s “Scream,” and 2023’s “Scream VI.” She also starred in films “Bring It On: All Or Nothing,” “I Love You, Beth Cooper” and “Raising Helen.”
Hayden Panettiere book details child stardom, addiction, brother’s death
In her candid memoir released earlier this year, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” Panettiere chronicled childhood fame, laying bare her crosses with nefarious actors in her teens and addiction as an adult. In interviews about the memoir, Panettiere reflected that she was “groomed” to be a “little soldier” throughout her early career.
“Grown-ups gave me positive attention when – as an actor – I failed, got sick, screamed and cried, killed, grieved, and suffered. Reality merged with my imagination and burrowed into my core memories, where all my shame and trauma lives,” Panettiere wrote in her memoir. “I’ve often wondered whether – unintentionally – I’ve brought on my traumas because I’m wired to think they’re good for me.”
Born Aug. 21, 1989, Panettiere was raised in Palisades, New York, by former soap actress Lesley R. Vogel and Alan Lee “Skip” Panettiere, a former captain with the New York City Fire Department. She began appearing in television commercials before she turned 1, spending the rest of her life in front of the camera.
She was one of the youngest Grammy nominees, earning a nomination for best spoken word album for children for “A Bug’s Life Read-Along.” She also nabbed nominations for Golden Globes, Young Artist Awards, People’s Choice Awards and Critics’ Choice Television Awards, winning a Teen Choice Award in 2007 for choice TV actress in a drama for “Heroes.”
When she was a teen, Panettiere’s team gave her “happy pills” – an amphetamine, Panettiere believed – before interviews and red carpets to help her focus. Panettiere wrote in her memoir that this habit would “forever change” her world.
“At 16, they were the gateway drug that ushered me toward the good of pharmaceuticals and the downfall of addiction,” she wrote.
Elsewhere, the actress wrote that her turn on “Nashville” often reflected the real-life confusion she felt.
“Juliette Barnes had postpartum depression, and an alcohol and pill problem, and a divorce on the horizon. She was erratic, an absentee mother, and fought with everyone, including her fans. Every time I read the day’s script, it was like I was looking in a funhouse mirror, seeing a distorted reflection of myself. I can’t tell you how lost this made me feel,” Panettiere wrote.
Her substance misuse is not the only issue the Panettiere family has experienced. Panettiere wrote in her book that her brother, Jansen, was smoking crack and snorting heroin before he died in 2023 at age 28. At the time, the family revealed the cause of death as “cardiomegaly [enlarged heart], coupled with aortic valve complications.”
Hayden Panettiere ‘This Is Me’ memoir unpacks relationship with daughter
In the throes of postpartum depression after having her daughter, Kaya, Panettiere wrote that she became addicted to alcohol and Klonopin, a central nervous system depressant. At one point, a doctor told her she’d “be dead within five years” if she didn’t stop drinking, she wrote.
The actress shares an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, with her former fiancé, Wladimir Klitschko, a Ukrainian professional boxer.
During this time, Panettiere said the first thing she thought of when she woke up was alcohol: “Not my child, not my job, and not the rest of my life. I needed a drink to function.” Klitschko then asked for full custody of their daughter, worrying about her being in Panettiere’s care.
The actress detailed the move to give over full custody during an appearance on Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast in May. “The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be OK with it is heartbreaking,” she told Shetty. “It couldn’t be further from the truth. It became this horrible cycle for years of battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse, and just me trying to find my way back.”
Panettiere previously opened up about the criticism on a 2022 episode of “Red Table Talk.” She said the move to give up custody “wasn’t a discussion” and that Klitschko thought “that I could choose to snap out of it.” At the time that she signed the papers, she said she believed Kaya would come back to live with her when she got healthy, “but that didn’t happen.”
“I did not have a good reaction to it. I went like ‘mother lion.’ I would have burnt the world down for my child,” she told Shetty, but she eventually realized that Kaya had already started building a “beautiful life” in Ukraine.
Contributing: Clare Mulroy, Taijuan Moorman and KiMi Robinson
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