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Hayden Panettiere once shared that becoming a mother helped her overcome her fear of dying.
“I grew up with this major fear of death,” the actress exclusively told Us in April. “So as a child, that was something that I struggled with.”
Panettiere added that when she was gearing up to give birth to daughter Kaya, now 11, the love for her child overpowered fear. (Panettiere welcomed Kaya in December 2014 with then-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko.)
“So the fact that I found myself facing it in that moment, actually facing it … on one hand, I should have been terrified,” she continued. “But on the other hand, it was becoming a mother, becoming a parent in that moment [when] a person is born that you are willing to do anything for, to lay your life down for.”
While Panettiere knew there was always a risk, the Heroes alum wanted to make sure she could share at least one moment with her daughter.
“I remember looking up and just praying and saying, ‘God, just let me hear my daughter cry. Let me know that she’s OK, and if it’s my time to go, then I’m OK with that, as long as she’s good,’” she recalled.
Following her pregnancy, Panettiere struggled with postpartum depression. She also battled alcohol and opioid addiction. Panettiere candidly spoke about her struggles in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, which she released in May.
Panettiere ultimately gave custody of Kaya to Klitschko. While Kaya and the former boxer, 50, call his native Ukraine home, Panettiere was able to visit and maintain a coparenting relationship.
Us confirmed that Panettiere died in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday, August 16. She was 36.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” Panettiere’s father, Skip, said in a statement to Us. “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.”
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office completed an autopsy on Monday, August 17. According to a report obtained by Us, first responders arrived at the scene to administer “advanced cardiac life support measures.” The efforts were unsuccessful, and Panettiere was pronounced dead at the scene.
The coroner’s office “initiated a parallel investigation” with the Greenville City Police Department. The autopsy showed “no signs of trauma” contributed to Panettiere’s death, per the report. However, an official cause of death has yet to be ruled, as the investigation remains ongoing.
