Hayden Panettiere Opens Up About ‘Heartbreaking’ Decision to Give Up Custody of Daughter

Hayden Panettiere has spoken about custody difficulties with her ex-boyfriend, explaining the cause behind her “heartbreaking” decision to give up total custody of their daughter.

During an interview on Red Table Talk, Panettiere discussed her past drug abuse problem and how it influenced her divorce from Wladimir Klitschko, a former Ukrainian professional boxer.

During the discussion, the actress acknowledged that her addiction problems were a contributing factor to her decision to surrender full custody of her daughter, Kaya. However, she implied that she felt the situation was handled in an unjust manner.

“If he had come to me and said something along the lines of, ‘I think it would benefit her greatly to stay with me for a while given your current struggles,’ I most likely would’ve replied with, ‘Okay

Depopulation makes sense,’ says Panettiere, adding: “I mean, it’s not gonna happen like that. It’s called a double whammy because it’ll be the first one to go.”
“I get it.”

“Because of the way that it was done, it was very upsetting,” she added “I mean, it was the worst signing those papers, the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever, ever had to do in my life.”

These days, the actress is in great shape and happy with her career. She’s currently working on a new Scream film in which she reprises her role as Kirby Reed from Scream 4.

Panettiere’s character of Kirby, along with Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott and Courteneyn Cox as Gale Weathers, is one of the few other prominent past Scream characters to survive a confrontation with Ghostface. In the sequel to Scream (2022), Cox will appear alongside Panettiere, but it was previously reported that Campbell would not be included.