How Hayden Panettiere became an unexpected champion for Ukraine after relationship with Wladimir Klitschko
Hayden Panettiere and Wladimir Klitschko were an unlikely pair when they first met: the 32-year-old Ukrainian boxer was competing for world heavyweight titles as the actress had just starred in her breakout role in Heroes, aged 18.
Panettiere’s tragic death on Monday prompted an outpouring of grief from fans around the world. A cause of death has not been revealed, but an autopsy showed no signs of trauma.
The star of Scream and Nashville, for which she received two Golden Globe Award nominations, has long been a vocal supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia. Panettiere and Klitschko dated on-and-off for nine years between 2009 and 2018 and they pair had a daughter together, named Kaya.
Follow the latest tributes after Hayden Panettiere’s tragic death here.
Her death has broken the heart of the boxer, who said the family is going through a “time of profound shock and grief” and vowed to ensure their Kaya would “remember the person she was”.
Panettiere and Klitschko first met at a party in 2008, during the earlier years of the latter’s boxing dominance, and just as the young actress’ breakout show, Heroes, was in its first season.
The pair began dating in 2009, and dated on and off for nine years before breaking it off in 2018.
During that time, they had become engaged in 2013, before purchasing a home together in Nashville, Tennessee, as they planned their wedding.
One year later, they welcomed their daughter, Kaya, into the world, in what Panettiere afterwards revealed was a “traumatic” birth which involved 14 hours of labour and a three hour surgery, according to Page Six.
Despite the breakup, Panettiere remained a passionate advocate of Ukraine.
Following a struggle with depression and addiction, Panettiere lost custody of Kaya, who would move to Ukraine to live with Klitschko in 2018, according to The Hollywood Reporter. By that point, Russia had illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and separatist forces were fighting Ukrainian troops in the Donbas region.
When Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, Wladimir Klitschko, whose brother Vitalii is the mayor of Kyiv and also a former boxing champion, enlisted in the army. Kaya, the outlet reported, was not in Ukraine from the early days of the war.
Panettiere posted repeated messages of solidarity with Ukraine on Instagram in the years that followed.
“I have personally witnessed the strength of the Ukrainian people who fought so hard for their independence and have continued to passionately defend their country over the years. What Putin is doing is an absolute disgrace!,” she wrote on Instagram shortly after the invasion.
