Hayden Panettiere shared final post just weeks before her sudden death at 36
Hayden Panettiere was seen smiling with her friend, photographer Randall Slavin, in her final Instagram post, just weeks before her death.
The 36-year-old's father Skip Panettiere released a statement on Sunday, August 16, announcing Hayden Panettiere's death.
"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," a statement to ABC News read. "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. He then asked for privacy as the ‘family takes time to process this unimaginable loss’.
In the Nashville star's final Instagram post, she could be seen smiling with her tongue out as she posed in the black and white photo with Slavin, who had his arm around Panettiere.
Advert
In the caption of the picture, posted two weeks ago, the Heroes star penned: "Good times and good friends @randallslavin," along with a star emoji.
Since the news of Panettiere's death, Slavin reposted the photo to his own Instagram story, along with the caption: "Peace be with you, H," along with a red heart emoji.
The post is now full of tributes for the star, with one social media user writing: "This one hurts BAD. Just watched Bring It On with my daughter the other night and told her how iconic Hayden was… she was obsessed… RIP Sweet Girl."
A second read: "I’m so sorry Hayden. My thoughts are with your daughter and obviously those who loved you. Xoxo."
"Oh Hayden. was just watching a podcast where you shared your past and truth last month," a third comment read. rest in peace angel [white heart emoji]".
Just months before her death, the 36-year-old appeared on the Jay Shetty podcast, in which she emotionally opened up about the loss of her brother, Jansen, who passed away at 28-years-old, due to complications with his heart.
Opening up to Shetty, Panettiere said the loss of her younger brother was her 'biggest heartbreak'.
"There's nothing in my life that feels like losing my other half. He was born to be the yin to my yang," she shared.
"We were so close. Especially being the older sibling, it's your job to protect them and keep them safe, and not being able to is, I mean, heartbreaking doesn't even begin to cover it."
"I would need a dictionary to go through all the words for all the feelings that you go through in your mind," she continued.
"There's been so many times I want to call him all the time. He was my best friend and when he first died I remember screaming, 'I don't want to live in a world where he doesn't exist'."
Panettiere then said that the loss of her brother was 'something she doesn't think she'll ever get over'.
I feel him with me. I know that he's protecting me from where he is and was needed elsewhere, but I wish he could be sent back to me," the star emotionally told Shetty.
No further details surrounding Hayden Panettiere's death have been shared at the time of writing.
A timeline of Hayden Panettiere’s troubled Hollywood career
August 1989
Hayden Panettiere is born to firefighter Skip Panettiere and Lesley Vogel, who would go on to be Hayden’s manager.
1990
Panettiere appears in a commercial at 11 months old, later landing recurring roles in soap operas as a child actor.
2004/2005
Aged 15, Panettiere said someone on her team started offering her ‘happy pills’. She later tells People: “They were to make me peppy during interviews.
"I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction.”
2006
Aged 17, Panettiere lands one of the defining roles of her career as Claire Bennett in Heroes.
2007-2009
Panettiere later reveals several disturbing incidents that happened during this period in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning.
Aged 18, she claims she was led onto a yacht by ‘somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector’ and placed into bed next to an ‘undressed man who was very famous’.
In 2008, she alleged a network executive kissed her on the lips at a party.
Aged 19, she said a ‘well-respected, award-winning actor’ tricked her into looking at his testicles through an unzipped fly.
In 2007, she also starts dating Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia - she is 18 and he is 30. They split in 2009.
2009
Panettiere starts dating Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
Meanwhile, her father Skip is handed two years of informal probation after pleading ‘no contest’ to spousal battery.
2013
Panettiere and Klitschko get engaged.
December 2014
Panettiere and Klitschko’s daughter Kaya is born. Panettiere endures an incredibly difficult pregnancy, hemorrhaging during her c-section and being forced to undergo a three-hour surgery.
2015
Panettiere begins suffering severe post-partum depression. She later tells Jay Shetty on his On Purpose podcast: “I knew something was terribly, terribly wrong. I wasn't connecting with [Kaya] the way I should be.”
She uses alcohol to manage her mental health struggles and enters treatment when Kaya is four months old.
She later says she became dependent on medication to sleep, and then turned to drinking vodka.
2018
Klitschko presents Panettiere with custody papers asking for full custody of Kaya. After initially fighting back, she eventually accepts and Kaya goes to live with Klitschko in Ukraine.
She writes in her memoir: “Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life”
Meanwhile, her long-running role in TV show Nashville comes to an end and she doesn’t have any more TV or film roles for five years.
In the same year, she starts dating actor Brian Hickerson.
2020
Panettiere spends an eight month stint in rehab.
She experiences brutal alcohol withdrawal symptoms including insomnia and intense headaches.
Meanwhile, her now-ex Hickerson is charged with felony assault.
2021
Hickerson pleads no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse/cohabitant/girlfriend/child's parent and is sentenced to 45 days in jail and four years probation.
2023
Panettiere returns to acting, reprising her role as Kirby Reed in Scream VI.
In the same year, her brother Jansen dies aged 28 from an enlarged heart.
May 2026
Panettiere releases her memoir in which she makes disturbing allegations against film stars and industry execs from when she was a teenager.
She also opens up on her experience of postpartum depression and comes out as bisexual.
August 2026
Panettiere tragically dies. Police say: “The preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.”
Topics: Celebrity, Instagram, Social Media, Hayden Panettiere
Kiesha Dosanjh