Gayle King Says She Noticed Hayden Panettiere's 'Off-Camera' Pain Before Her Death

By Brandon Bombay
Hayden Panettiere wearing a black scarf and jacket. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

A few months before Hayden Panettiere's death, Gayle King spent time with her off-camera and noticed the actor was still having issues. On August 16, Panettiere's death was announced after a friend discovered the "Heroes" star unresponsive in her South Carolina home. According to audio of the 911 call obtained by Page Six, paramedics performed CPR for an apparent "overdose," but the official cause of her death has not yet been released.

The following day on "CBS Mornings," King recalled her last interview with Panettiere three months before her death. "It was hard when she was here that day," King said while eulogizing the "Nashville" actor. During that appearance, Panettiere was promoting her memoir "This is Me: A Reckoning," where she had opened up about her issues with alcohol, drug use, and postpartum depression. "When she was here in the studio that day, and I was talking to her off-camera, she was saying she felt that she was in a good place," King continued. Even though Panettiere had worked on her sobriety, it was apparent to the CBS personality that there were underlying problems. "But she was still, clearly still struggling," King added.

One of the tragic details about Panettiere's death was that she genuinely appeared to be on the right track during that last interview on "CBS Mornings" in May. Speaking to King on-air, the "Remember the Titans" actor was asked how she was doing. Panettiere had an optimistic response. "Still working on myself all the time. I got a great therapist. And I'm better, healthier than I've been in a long time," she told King. Other interviews around that time showed that Panettiere was working on overcoming personal demons.

Hayden Panettiere's issues started at a young age

Hayden Panettiere posing on a red carpet. Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

While promoting her memoir in May, Hayden Panettiere appeared on the "On Purpose" podcast, where she opened up about suffering from postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, Kayla. She revealed that her drinking got worse while she was struggling mentally, and she also spoke about Kayla moving to Ukraine with the actor's ex-fiance, Wladimir Klitschko. The "Scream 4" actor explained how living overseas with her dad was what was best for her daughter. "The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be okay with it is heartbreaking," she said. When Kayla was younger, Panettiere spent a long time in the throes of substance use. "It became this horrible cycle for years," she said on the podcast. "So by the time I finally got healthy, I felt like it would have been unfair of me ... and selfish of me to try and pull her out away from this life that she had created," Panettiere added.

That wasn't the only example of the "Nashville" actor opening up about her struggle with addiction. Four years earlier, Panettiere got honest about her troubling experience as a teen star. "I was on top of the world and I ruined it," she told People in an interview from July 2022. That was while she was promoting her return to the big screen as Kirby in the "Scream" franchise. Panettiere explained how she first started using pills when she was a teenager working on "Heroes," and how using drugs quickly spiraled and bled into her everyday life. "My saving grace is that I couldn't be messy while on set and working," she recalled. "But things kept getting out of control [off set]. And as I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn't live without," Panettiere told the outlet.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues or mental health, contact the relevant resources below:

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