Hayden Panettiere’s 11-Year-Old Daughter Kaya: Everything She Said About Her Only Child and Why She Chose to Give Up Custody

The ‘Heroes’ and ‘Nashville’ actress, who died at age 36 on Aug. 16, shared daughter Kaya with former fiancé Wladimir Klitschko and recently opened up about their “incredible” bond

Hayden Panettiere was always candid about the complicated journey that shaped her relationship with her only child, daughter Kaya Evdokia Klitschko.

The Heroes and Nashville actress died on Sunday, Aug. 16, at age 36, her representative confirmed to PEOPLE. Further details surrounding her death have not been released.

Panettiere is survived by her 11-year-old daughter, whom she welcomed with former fiancé Wladimir Klitschko in December 2014.

In the months before her death, Panettiere spoke openly about Kaya in her May 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, and during an appearance that same month on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast. She reflected on everything from her traumatic childbirth and postpartum depression to her struggles with addiction and the devastating decision to allow Klitschko to have full custody of their daughter.

Despite living apart for years, Panettiere said in her memoir that her bond with Kaya remained “incredibly strong.”

“Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life, and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion—including sadness, resentment, and anger—I’ve felt because of it,” she wrote.

“I grieve that I’m not the mother I thought I’d be and definitely not the mother I want to be (trust me, no one should ever have to raise a child on FaceTime), and although I miss Kaya so much my heart aches, I know how blessed I am to be her mom,” she continued. “She is the greatest gift of my life, with all the best parts of her father and me.”

Panettiere also described Kaya as “talented and wise beyond her years,” while explaining that she intentionally kept much of her daughter’s life out of her memoir.

“She didn’t ask to be born into the limelight or my chaos, and she didn’t get to choose her parents,” Panettiere wrote. “I want her to have every choice that I didn’t, including the ability to live a private life.”

Out of respect for Kaya’s “right to normalcy,” Panettiere said she would tell stories about motherhood only from her own perspective and keep personal details about her daughter “to a minimum.”

She also took responsibility for what she called her “shortcomings as a mom” and praised Klitschko, writing that he was “one of the most courageous people I’ve ever met and a true hero in so many ways.”

“Wlad, you are a wonderful human being and an amazing father to Kaya,” she wrote.

Kaya was born in December 2014 after a frightening pregnancy and delivery

Panettiere and Klitschko welcomed Kaya in Hawaii on Dec. 9, 2014.

“We are over the moon and madly in love!” the then-couple told PEOPLE following her birth.

But Panettiere revealed in This Is Me: A Reckoning that the pregnancy and delivery were far more difficult than the public knew at the time.

While pregnant and filming Nashville, Panettiere said there “was no way the writers on Nashville could work around” her pregnancy, leading the show to incorporate it into her character Juliette Barnes’ storyline.

“Juliette’s difficult, unexpected pregnancy was clearly the product of Nashville’s writers rejiggering my personal life and making it a plot device,” she wrote.

During her own pregnancy, Panettiere recalled becoming frightened when an OB-GYN told her that her baby’s arms and legs did not appear to be growing as quickly as the rest of her body. She was referred to a radiologist and later learned that her daughter’s limbs were fine, but doctors were instead concerned about the size of her head.

Panettiere wrote that she was told Kaya had microcephaly and could potentially be cognitively impaired.

As she waited for answers, Panettiere turned to Klitschko, who told her about a Ukrainian tradition for good luck that involved kneeling before a tree, holding it with both hands and praying.

Weeks later, with Klitschko beside her, Panettiere gave birth to Kaya. She described childbirth as the “hardest thing” she had ever done.

The delivery became an emergency when doctors called a “code crimson.” Panettiere underwent a three-hour surgery after her blood would not clot during her C-section, and she later learned her uterus had become infected.

She struggled to bond with Kaya after giving birth

Panettiere wrote candidly about the emotional numbness she experienced following Kaya’s birth.

“I’d always heard that mothers feel an instant rush of love the moment they lay their eyes on their baby, but I felt nothing,” she recalled.

Bonding with her newborn felt like an “insurmountable task,” she wrote, and she soon felt as though she was “raising Kaya alone.”

Panettiere recalled her “natural optimism and pep” disappearing as she struggled to soothe her daughter and understand what she was experiencing. In one moment described in the memoir, she worried she had accidentally hurt Kaya while taking her out of the bath.

“But it wasn’t panic that was sitting in my chest,” she wrote. “It was nothing. A total blackout of emotion, like my soul was dead. I wasn’t myself, yet the problem was I didn’t know what I was supposed to be.”

Alcohol increasingly became a way for Panettiere to cope. She recalled seeing a bottle of wine and pouring so much that her glass “almost overflowed.”

Her drinking escalated after she returned to work on Nashville. Panettiere wrote that she became relieved when Klitschko wasn’t around to see how many empty bottles she was throwing away and eventually found herself needing alcohol just to get out of bed and go to work.

“It’s 6 a.m.,” she remembered thinking, “and I’m trying to get drunk.”

Her first thought in the morning had become alcohol.

“Not my child, not my job, and not the rest of my life,” she wrote. “I needed a drink to function—at 6:00 a.m.—and that was f—ed. If I didn’t get some help as soon as possible, I was f—ed.”

Panettiere entered treatment when Kaya was 4 months old

Panettiere first entered treatment when Kaya was 4 months old and was diagnosed with postpartum depression.

She was prescribed medication to help her cope, but the star wrote that it created another problem.

The medication kept her from “cracking,” she said, “but they had a catch: if I didn’t take them, I couldn’t sleep. If I did, I slept too much.”

“I walked into rehab addicted to one substance, and I walked out, completely dependent on something else,” she wrote.

Panettiere said taking Klonopin left her feeling like a “zombie.” At one point, she woke up in a hospital after someone from work found her asleep and was unable to wake her.

She eventually returned to drinking, including vodka, initially convincing herself that “no one could smell it on” her breath.

“I was fooling myself,” she wrote.

Panettiere previously told E! News’ The Rundown in 2023 that she wished she had understood postpartum depression before experiencing it herself.

“I never heard any stories about it at all. I just thought there was something seriously wrong with me, so I thought, ‘[Alcohol] will fix this. Duh!’ ” she said. “And it didn’t. It does for a moment, but then it made everything worse.”

Her relationship with Klitschko deteriorated as she struggled with addiction

Panettiere wrote that her struggles eventually took a toll on both her career and her relationship with Klitschko.

She lost her Neutrogena contract and told Klitschko that even after treatment, she still did not feel like herself.

“I don’t know why you’re so unhappy,” she recalled him telling her. “We have a nice life. You have a nice life.”

When he told her happiness was a choice, Panettiere remembered responding, “You think my depression is a choice?”

As their relationship broke down, Kaya began going back and forth between her parents.

Eventually, Panettiere said Klitschko presented her with custody papers seeking full custody of their daughter because he was worried about Kaya while she was in her mother’s care.

Panettiere initially defended herself, writing that Kaya had “amazing nannies and is surrounded by people who love her.”

But the actress was still in recovery, and she ultimately decided not to fight Klitschko for custody.

She never forgot the day she signed over custody

Panettiere recalled the custody decision in stark terms in This Is Me: A Reckoning.

“I remember every second of that day. Every f—ing second,” she wrote. “No mother could forget a single thing about the day she signed her child away.”

Panettiere said she had the financial means to wage a custody battle but believed doing so while she was still in recovery would have destroyed her.

After Nashville ended, she declined to celebrate the series finale.

“I couldn’t pretend that this chapter of my life was something to memorialize,” she wrote.

She eventually sold her Nashville home and found herself confronting a life that looked dramatically different from the one she’d previously known: “no work, no plan for work anytime soon, no boyfriend, and no Kaya to care for.”

Panettiere had previously described relinquishing custody as the “most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”

“It was the hardest thing I could do,” she told PEOPLE in 2022. “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.”

She rejected the idea that she simply “gave away” her daughter

Years after the custody decision, Panettiere remained hurt by the public perception that she had willingly walked away from Kaya.

During a May 2026 appearance on Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, she pushed back against the suggestion that she simply “gave away” her child.

“I mean, the idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be okay with it is heartbreaking. Couldn’t be farther from the truth,” she said.

Panettiere also emphasized that she had voluntarily sought help for her addiction.

“I think a misconception is that I have been, in the past, forced into treatment when, in fact, I have been the one who has sought it out,” she said.

She had similarly explained on Red Table Talk in 2022 that she initially believed the custody arrangement would change once she recovered.

“I was gonna go work on myself and I was gonna get better,” she said. “And when I got better that things could change and she could come to me and I could have my time with her. But that didn’t happen.”

Panettiere said she felt “horribly guilty,” but believed separating from Kaya was ultimately the least selfish choice she could make at the time.

“If I’m not okay, if I’m not good then I cannot be the best mom to [Kaya],” she said. “And I was going through such a hard time and I knew the most unselfish thing I could do was to make that hard decision and just try to work on myself.”

Kaya continued to live with her father in Europe

Kaya remained primarily with Klitschko in Europe, while Panettiere maintained her relationship with her daughter through visits, travel and FaceTime.

In the opening pages of her memoir, which she noted were written in spring 2025, Panettiere reflected on the pain she continued to carry over the years she had spent apart from Kaya.

“My daughter, Kaya, has lived with her dad, Wladimir Klitschko, since 2018,” she wrote.

While acknowledging the “sadness, resentment, and anger” she had experienced over the arrangement, Panettiere said she understood those emotions differently after years of recovery and reflection.

“I know anger springs from hurt, depression often masks as rage, and grief is a long, complicated journey,” she wrote.

Despite everything, she said, “the bond I have with Kaya is incredibly strong.”

She called Kaya “talented and wise beyond her years”

Panettiere frequently spoke proudly about the person her daughter was becoming, describing Kaya in her memoir as “talented and wise beyond her years.”

Speaking to PEOPLE in 2024, Panettiere similarly marveled at how much of herself she saw in her then-9-year-old daughter.

“She is amazing. I mean, she is so much like me. It’s crazy,” she said, before calling Kaya “a genius” and revealing that she was working on her fifth language.

At the time, Kaya spoke English, Russian, Ukrainian and German and was learning French. “She doesn’t appreciate it now,” Panettiere joked.

Kaya also shared several of her mom’s interests, including a love of horses and swimming. Panettiere said her daughter’s passion for horseback riding made her think about “nature versus nurture,” noting that the sport ran in her family. She similarly recalled spending much of her pregnancy swimming while filming Nashville, only for Kaya to grow up loving the water herself.

But one quality in particular made Panettiere proud: despite her unusual upbringing, Kaya wanted to feel like any other kid.

Panettiere recalled learning that Kaya was unhappy about taking an elaborate boat to school while some of her classmates arrived by bus or were dropped off by their parents or nannies. Though the situation made Panettiere laugh, she said she “appreciate[d] so much that she wanted to be like every other kid.”

“That made my heart sing,” she said, adding that Kaya was “a humble, normal little girl.”

Panettiere also revealed that her daughter golfed, took piano lessons and belonged to a chess club — and apparently inherited a competitive streak.

“I can tell by some of the pictures I get of her that she does not like to lose,” she said. 

Panettiere said she and Kaya talked about “really deep things”

Just three months before her death, Panettiere offered one of her most extensive recent updates about her relationship with Kaya.

Speaking on On Purpose in May, she said her daughter understood that she had “two parents that love her.”

“I have an incredible relationship with her,” Panettiere said. “I go travel as much as I can. I see her. I do spend a lot of time on FaceTime with her, but we talk about really deep things.”

“We have a really intense, incredible bond and I’m very grateful for that,” she continued.

Above all, Panettiere said she wanted her daughter to know that neither parent had abandoned her.

“I know that she knows that she has two parents that would do anything in the world to make sure that she is happy and healthy, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually,” she said. “She in no way feels abandoned and that’s something that I’ve made sure to stay on top of and be very aware of.”

In This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere similarly reflected on both the time she had lost and the love she continued to have for her daughter.

“I’ve always strived to be a positive person, but I grieve all the hours I lose to addiction, my broken relationships, and my loved ones who are no longer here,” she wrote.

Despite those losses, Panettiere said she remained grateful for what her struggles had taught her.

“I’m far from perfect, but my life quakes and moments of struggle are little miracles that have helped me grow,” she wrote.

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