The former world heavyweight champion, who shares daughter Kaya with the Heroes and Nashville star, said his family was in ‘profound shock and grief’
Wladimir Klitschko has paid tribute to his former fiancée Hayden Panettiere following her death on Sunday, a week before her 37th birthday. The Heroes and Nashville actress died with an autopsy finding no signs of trauma, though an official cause of death has yet to be confirmed. Klitschko, 50, shared a family photograph on Tuesday morning alongside a statement describing his shock and asking for privacy. The couple had a daughter, Kaya, who has lived in Ukraine with her father since 2018.
The tribute
“Our family is going through a time of profound shock and grief,” Klitschko wrote. “The announcement of Hayden’s tragic death saddens me deeply. She left this world far too soon. Hayden was, although no longer my partner, an important part of my life and the mother of our daughter, Kaya.”
He went on to reflect on her career and the pressures that came with it. “She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry. Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives.”
Addressing his daughter directly, he added: “To our daughter Kaya, I will always speak of her mother with respect and make sure she remembers the person she was.”
Klitschko offered condolences to Panettiere’s parents, friends and fans, saying young and talented people should not leave the world so soon. He asked for the family’s feelings and privacy to be respected, thanked those who had offered support, and closed: “Rest easy, Hayden. May you find eternal peace.”
A relationship that spanned more than a decade
The pair met at a book launch in 2009 and began dating, separating in 2011 before reconciling two years later. They became engaged in October 2013, and Kaya was born the following December. Their split was confirmed in 2018, though they remained on amicable terms.
Later that year Panettiere announced she had made the “difficult decision” to sign full custody of Kaya, then three, to Klitschko, and their daughter moved to his native Ukraine. The decision followed a period of severe depression that she said left her feeling nothing, and which led to her drinking and eventually entering rehab for both depression and substance abuse.
Her own account of the custody decision
Panettiere spoke about that period in interviews earlier this year. In May, she told Dear Momé: “It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, nor was it a decision I even wanted to make. I was going through a really challenging time in my life.”
Speaking on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast in the same month, she described asking for help herself. “I have been the one who sought it out, who was saying, ‘I desperately need help. I know this is going to look terrible, but I am. I cannot live like this anymore.'”
She rejected suggestions the decision had been an easy one. “The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be OK with it is heartbreaking. It couldn’t be further from the truth,” she said, describing years of “battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse, and just me trying to find my way back”.
Of her relationship with her daughter, she told Dear Momé: “I love my daughter, and I’m so proud of the young woman she is becoming. I talk to her all the time, and I feel so connected to her. She’s like a mini-me.” She said she had chosen not to disrupt Kaya’s life in Ukraine once she recovered, adding that it would have been “unfair” and “selfish” to pull her out of the life she had built there.
A career that began in childhood
Panettiere started acting as a child in soap operas before gaining wider recognition in the 2000 sports drama Remember The Titans opposite Denzel Washington, and as the voice of Dot in Pixar’s A Bug’s Life in 1998.
She became widely known as cheerleader Claire Bennet in the superhero drama Heroes, and later played country singer Juliette Barnes across six seasons of Nashville, earning two Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress. Her music from the show produced 11 entries on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Her other film work included Bring It On: All Or Nothing in 2006, the comedy-drama Raising Helen, and the role of Kirby Reed in Scream 4 and Scream VI.
