Hayden Panettiere has died, leaving behind her 11-year-old daughter Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, and her parents.

Updated on: Aug 17, 2026, 09:38:19 IST

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Hayden Panettiere has died at the age of 36, her representative confirmed to ABC 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 rep said in a statement.

Hayden Panettiere net worth and family

Panettiere had a net worth of $6 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. In March 2008, she paid $2.635 million for a mid-century modern home in the Hollywood Hills. In March 2014, she sold this home for $3.075 million. She bought a newly constructed home in Nashville in 2012, and sold it in October 2018 for $1.65 million.

Panettiere was born in Palisades, New York. While her mother, Lesley Vogel, was a former soap opera actress, her father, Skip Panettiere, worked as a fire department lieutenant. In 2023, Panettiere’s younger brother Jansen died unexpectedly of a heart condition at 28.

Panettiere leaves behind her 11-year-old daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, who was born in December 2014 in Hawaii. She shares her daughter with Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian former heavyweight boxing champion.

Panettiere announced her engagement to Klitschko in October 2013, and Kaya was born following her. However, in August 2018, Panettiere's mother confirmed Panettiere and Klitschko had broken up again but remained on friendly terms.

Panettiere opened up about struggling with postpartum depression in her memoir, recalling that when she met her newborn daughter following a grueling labor and emergency surgery, she "felt nothing.”

"I wasn't OK," Panettiere wrote in This Is Me: A Reckoning, which was released May 19. "I had to figure out how to bond with her. It felt like an insurmountable task, and I was only on the first day."

She explained that she did not have what felt like postpartum anxiety, but a void of emotions altogether.

"It wasn't panic that was sitting in my chest. It was nothing. A total blackout of emotion, like my soul was dead," she wrote.

Panettiere began drinking heavily around four months after giving birth. "The first thing I'd thought of when I woke up was alcohol. Not my child, not my job, and not the rest of my life. I needed a drink to function — at 6 a.m.," she wrote.

Panettiere eventually entered treatment and was officially diagnosed with PPD.

In 2018, Panettiere relinquished full custody of Kaya to Wladimir Klitschko amid her struggles with addiction and postpartum depression. She described the decision as a "living nightmare" and "heartbreaking.”

As of May 2026, Panettiere maintained a good, co-parenting relationship with Klitschko. She frequently visited her daughter in Ukraine.

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