Hayden Panettiere
After battling substance abuse and postnatal depression, Hayden Panettiere is ready for her next chapter. And she’s taking it one day at a time
It’s the fourth consecutive day of rain in Los Angeles, and Hayden Panettiere is lighting candles in the guest room of her home before curling up under a blanket.
The 33-year-old actor has owned this place since she was 16 years old. It was one of her first big purchases after moving from New York to LA and landing the role of Claire on the hit TV series Heroes. ‘This is the last place my family lived all together,’ she says, of her parents and younger brother, Jansen. She’s moved multiple times over the past 15 years, including relocating to Tennessee to film the TV show Nashville, but she always held on to this place.
Recently, she’s been renovating it; since returning to LA after a four-year hiatus from acting, she’s been turning it into her own personal sanctuary. ‘I’ve completely redone it,’ she beams, looking over her shoulder at two black-and-white prints she brought back from Montreal, where she shot Scream VI – the most recent addition to the successful horror film franchise. She’s particularly fond of the lighting she installed – bulbs that change colour to suit your mood. Now, they’re pink and yellow for warmth. ‘It feels like home,’ she says.
There’s no missing the symbolism: this homecoming isn’t simply about a place. For Hayden, it’s a state of mind, a return to her roots – to herself – after years of struggling with postnatal depression and substance abuse and giving up custody of her daughter, Kaya, to her ex – the retired pro boxer Wladimir Klitschko. She’s nervous to do a cover shoot tied to a film release – it’s been a while. But it’s important to her. ‘A lot of people feel stuck,’ she says. ‘I want to let them know they’re not alone.’
Hayden was four years old when she started work as a child actor. She went from roles in popular daytime soap operas to being a Grammy nominee before she was 10. She starred opposite Denzel Washington in Remember The Titans at 11, and at 14, she trained to race a zebra in South Africa for the movie Racing Stripes. She’s done her own stunts (in heels) and learned to ice skate like a pro. She became a prime-time television staple for most of her teens and twenties. Whil
