'My liver was failing.' 5 things we learned from Hayden Panettiere's latest interview.

This post deals with drug and alcohol addiction, depression and domestic violence, and might be triggering for some readers.

Hayden Panettiere is returning the big screen for Scream VI, seven years since her last film or TV role.

The 33-year-old actor will reprise her role as Kirby Reed, and hopes to take on more roles again in the future.

Panettiere was one of those faces we saw everywhere in the 2000s and 2010s – from Heroes to Raising Helen and Nashville – until she wasn't.

In the actor's latest profile for The New York Times, she discusses her struggles with addiction, relationships, and returning to the screen.

Here are five things we learned from the interview.

Watch Hayden Panettiere talk about her experience with postnatal depression. Post continues below.

1. She recently lost her brother.

Hayden Panettiere's brother, Jansen Rane Panettiere, died aged 28, on February 19, 2023. He was an actor and artist. He passed less than three weeks before the release of Scream VI. 

Panettiere tried to push through the press tour for the film, per The New York Times, but after struggling to get through more than one interview, she cancelled the rest of her appearances. 

"His art, that was the thing that made him happiest," she told writer Jacq Harriet during their interview, standing in front of one of his pieces in her home.

When Panettiere was 18, her parents separated, and she ended up in the middle of their eight-year divorce battle. 

She would feel as though she had to choose between them, and instead, end up staying by herself or with ex-partner, Wladimir Klitschko.

"But my relationship with my parents now is good and even more special to me, because we lost my brother," she said.

2. Her alcohol addiction began when she became a mum.

In 2009, when Panettiere was 19, she met and started dating Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko. 

They got engaged in 2013 and welcomed their daughter Kaya in December 2014.

After her daughter's birth, Panettiere experienced post-natal depression, and turned to alcohol and opioids to self-medicate.

At the same time, she was starring in the TV show Nashville. 

Panettiere played troubled singer Juliette Barnes, and her storyline mirrored many of her real-life experiences.

"Even if something was too much for me, I would never admit to it," she told the publication about having to act out her struggles. 

"It was always about making them happy."

Panettiere in Nashville. Image: CMT.

The actor left the show briefly in 2015 to seek help for her depression, and in 2018, when the show ended, her daughter went to live with her father in Ukraine.

"When I went home after acting out what I was really going through, the last thing I wanted to do was properly manage or talk about what I was feeling in a healthy way," she said. 

"So I turned to unhealthy coping mechanisms."

3. Her liver started failing.

Panettiere believes her addiction was partly a way of making up for lost time, working as a child actor.

"I wanted that control back," she told the NYT. 

"I wanted to do things I wasn’t supposed to do, and I wanted to just let go and act like a kid."

But it became much more extreme than that. 

The actor was 27 at the time and would wake up shaking. She would need a bottle of alcohol to get through a day, and often took opioids to lessen her drinking.  

She no longer recognised herself.

"My eyes were yellow," Panettiere said, adding that doctors told her that her liver was failing and she was septic. 

4. Her relationship with alcohol now.

In 2021, Panettiere re-entered treatment for eight months. She has been sober for almost two years now.

Although the actor has deleted most of the photos taken at the height of her addiction, she's kept one.

"To remind myself what I looked like. The fact that I thought I looked okay at that time is the scariest part," she said.

5. Where she stands with ex Brian Hickerson.

After Panettiere's daughter moved to Ukraine, her drinking worsened. She also started dating real estate agent and actor Brian Hickerson.

In 2019 and 2020, Hickerson was arrested over two separate alleged incident of domestic violence at the couple's home in Los Angeles. 

In 2021, he pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring Panettiere and served time in jail. 

Both of them have since become sober and reconnected.

Hickerson was at the actor's photoshoot for the profile, and when asked if they were dating again, Panettiere said, "There are feelings there, yes."

She added that she doesn't condone his behaviour in the past.

"He knows he deserved what happened to him," she said.

"[Our relationship is] contingent on him continuing on this road of recovery. I did not do any of this lightly."

Feature image: Getty.