Hayden Panettiere opens up on why she relapsed after drug addiction left her jaundiced
Ali Condon
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/The Photo Access/PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive
Hayden Panettiere has explained why she relapsed after going to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction.
The Scream and Bring It On star first opened up about her battle with addiction last year, revealing that someone on her team had given her substances when she was as young as 15.
Over the years, she admitted that things got out of control and opioids and alcohol became 'something she almost couldn't live without.'
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In a new interview with Women's Health, Hayden revealed that, even after a stint in rehab, she wound up relapsing again,.
The Nashville actor said that she first turned to alcohol as an 'act of defiance' to prove that she could make certain decisions for herself after being told 'how to live' by so many different people.
In 2014, she suffered from postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter Kaya, who she shares with boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
The former child actor admitted that she should have taken antidepressants, but 'they don't mix well with alcohol, and I wasn't ready to stop drinking'.
At the same time, Hayden was dealing with a flare up of an old neck injury, and started taking opioid painkillers.
"I was in a lot of pain. My tolerance got so high so fast that it became a problem," she said.
Hayden first put herself into rehab in 2015, while shooting the fourth season of Nashville after feeling like she was 'drowning'.
But when her character on the show got a little bit too similar to her real life situation, it all got to be too much.
"They wrote my character as having postpartum depression… that she abandoned her child and went to a different country.
"And it was very difficult to go on set and to act out these feelings about these things that I was truly going through in my real life."
Soon after that that Hayden decided to leave the film and TV industry to focus on herself.
But unfortunately, it wasn't long before the actor turned to alcohol, causing some pretty dire symptoms.
"I struggled with sleep deprivation," she recalled.
"Sleep is massive. It affects your motor skills, your ability to think and your overall health...my body was like, 'enough,'."
Not only that, but aged just 30, Hayden says: "My face was swollen. I had jaundice. My eyes were yellow. I had to go to a liver specialist.
"I was holding on to weight that wasn’t normally there. My hair was thin and coming out in clumps."
Eventually, in 2021, Hayden decided to get herself clean once and for all, enrolling herself in a 12-step programme.
Today, she can proudly say that her confidence 'is back', and she's feeling a whole lot more like herself again.
If you've been affected by the contents of this article and are looking for confidential and anonymous information related to drug addiction treatment you can call American Addiction Centers on 405-251-8425 available 24 hours seven days-a-week.