Hayden Panettiere tributes pour in following her death at 36: ‘Don’t be gone’
A devastated Selma Blair has paid tribute to Hayden Panettiere following her death at age 36 – writing in one post: “I’m dying, Please be here.”
The “Legally Blonde” actress, 54, posted three comments, reacting to the final Instagram snap the “Nashville” and “Heroes” star shared last month.
“I love you. Don’t be gone. Don’t be gone. Please. Please,” Blair wrote in one post.
“I love you whale tail my friend,” she penned in a second.
“I’m dying. Please be here,” Blair wrote in a third post.
Tia Mowry, known for her role in “Sister, Sister,” reacted to Panettiere’s death by posting a broken heart emoji.
“Oh my god – heartbroken,” talk show host and comic Rosie O’Donnell wrote.
“Rest in peace sweet Hayden,” Melissa Barrera, who starred alongside Panettiere in “Scream VI”, posted on her Instagram Stories.
“I love you Hayden,” David Arquette, Panettiere’s co-star in “Scream 4,” wrote.
Bethany Joy Lenz, who played Haley James Scott in “One Tree Hill,” described Panettiere as a “wild little blonde” and said she was “crushed” by her death.
“She ran through the Screen Gem studio hallways at 222 E44th St. laughing and playing games in between blocking and camera rehearsals,” she wrote on Instagram, sharing a picture of the late star from when she was a child.
“Long, unruly curls trailing behind her. She knew her lines and everyone else’s. Her intelligence was astonishing. She understood scenes and nuance and human struggle like no child I’d ever seen on camera.
“And she’d sit with you for a great conversation, then giggle and go play. We’d connect on and off over the years, like the cousin in the family reunion who got famous and life moved her away—but I always felt such joy seeing her when we were lucky enough to cross paths.
“I dont understand how this is real. Everything seemed to be turning around.
“She was coming BACK to life, wasn’t she? It’s too young and there’s still so much more life. And her daughter…. Hayden, you are surround[ed] by love. I’m sorry for every moment I didn’t reach out or check in. This can’t be real.”
Randall Slavin, the man who was with Panettiere in the final picture shared on her account, re-posted the image on his Instagram Story, alongside the message, “Peace be with you, H.”
Panettiere’s death was announced by her dad Skip Sunday night.
“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. We ask for privacy as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss,” he told Page Six.
Her cause of death hasn’t been revealed – but a source close to her told TMZ she had been complaining about back pain over the past year.
Panettiere was open about her struggles with opioid and alcohol addiction and postpartum depression in the years before her death.
“I would have the shakes when I woke up and could only function with sipping alcohol,” she told People in July 2022.
She was hospitalized with jaundice and checked into rehab in 2020, spending eight months there.
“A doctor told me that if I didn’t stop drinking, I’d be dead within five years.”
The actress said she “felt more clear-headed than I’d ever been” when she left rehab in 2021.
Panettiere was a mom to daughter Kaya, 11, whom she shared with the retired heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
The New York-born star struck up a relationship with the athlete in 2009, becoming engaged in 2013. They separated in 2018.
“I never had the feeling that I wanted to harm my child, but I didn’t want to spend any time with her,” she said, documenting her battle with postpartum depression.
Panettiere relinquished custody of her only child in 2018 — the same year she split from the boxer.
“It was the hardest thing I could do,” she told People.
“But the best thing for my daughter was to make sure she was okay, take care of myself and make sure I could be a good mom to her. And sometimes that means letting go.”
Panettiere described Kaya as an “amazing child.”
“She’s smart, and she’s funny, and for whatever reason, she still loves me,” she said.
“She’s a happy kid open to a huge world. And she has more love than anybody I’ve ever met.”
Panettiere suffered a personal tragedy in February 2023 following the death of her brother, Jansen, age 28.
Panettiere documented her battles in her 320-page memoir “This is Me: A Reckoning,” which was released in May.
