Celebrity6 min(s) read
Published 09:33 18 Aug 2026 GMT
Hayden Panettiere's severe health issues before death made it 'hard for her to move her legs'
Hayden Panettiere was dealing with pain so severe in the months before her death that she could barely move her legs, according to one of the people closest to her.
The actress, who was found unresponsive at an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday and pronounced dead at the age of 36, had been struggling with nerve damage in her lower back for over a year.
She was seen on crutches at LAX in March.
In a Women's Health interview filmed weeks before she died, she said she woke up one morning and could not feel anything below her waist.
Her father confirmed her death on Sunday evening. She would have turned 37 in five days.
What her friend said about her health
Panettiere's hairdresser and close friend Erick Orellana told Page Six that her back pain had been 'really severe' in the months before her death.
"I know she suffered earlier this year with her back," Orellana said. "At one point, it was even hard for her to move her legs."
He said she had seemed to be improving recently and was 'starting to be on the mend'. A separate source close to Panettiere told TMZ she had been 'complaining of back pain regularly' for the past year.
When she was photographed on crutches at LAX in March with her boyfriend Brian Hickerson, she told paparazzi it was 'pinched nerves'.
What Panettiere said herself
In a Women's Health interview published in May, filmed several weeks before her death, Panettiere described what had happened to her body in detail.
"I've been dealing with an injury for the past year," she said.
"Some nerve damage in my lower back."
"I quite literally woke up and felt nothing but pins and needles from my waist down.
"I wasn't able to bend my toes, lift my foot at all. No one was able to give me a solid answer."
She said the condition lasted so long that she began to fear it was permanent.
"It was like that for so long that I was sitting there going, 'Oh my gosh, am I gonna be paralyzed for the rest of my life?' It's the scariest thing that's ever happened to me physically, for sure."
She also talked about previous injuries picked up on sets over the years. She had been thrown from a zebra during filming and ended up with two vertebrae pushed into her neck. Pulled muscles were regular. She said keeping her muscles strong was the only thing holding her skeleton together.
How she died
Police and paramedics responded to a report of an unresponsive woman at the Judson Mill Lofts apartment complex in Greenville at around 1:50pm ET on Sunday. The property was an Airbnb.
Dispatch audio obtained by People referenced an 'overdose' and 'cardiac arrest' at the time of the call. First responders attempted advanced cardiac life support and chest compressions. She was pronounced dead at 2:32pm.
Panettiere had flown from Los Angeles to the South with Hickerson the day before. The cause of death remains pending. Police said there were no signs of foul play.
Her father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed the news in a statement through her representative.
"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," he said. "She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her, and to the millions who watched her onscreen."
The years before
Panettiere's final years were difficult by any measure.
She suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter Kaya, now 11, with former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko.
She was open about her struggles with opioid addiction and alcohol dependency, and made the painful decision to give up custody of her daughter to Klitschko while she tried to get herself well.
It was something she described as 'the most heartbreaking thing' she had ever done.
Hickerson, the man she flew to South Carolina with the day before she died, was arrested and pleaded no contest to domestic violence in 2021.
He was sentenced to 45 days in prison and a five-year restraining order. Despite this, the pair reunited.
In 2023, her younger brother Jansen died suddenly at 28 from an enlarged heart.
After his death, Panettiere became agoraphobic. She stopped leaving the house. She gained weight and struggled to look at herself in the mirror.
"I didn't want to go to fittings and look at myself in the mirror and hate everything that I saw on myself," she told Fox News at the time.
She had recently published a memoir and was beginning to re-engage with work and public life.
She appeared in Amber Alert in 2024 and Sleepwalker earlier this year.
She skipped a convention appearance in July, with her team citing 'a private family matter concerning the health of an elderly relative'.
Who Hayden Panettiere was
She was born on August 21, 1989, in Palisades, New York.
She started acting as a toddler and became a household name as the indestructible cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes, a role she landed at 16.
She went on to star in Nashville for six seasons, appeared in the Scream franchise, and had early roles in Remember the Titans and Bring It On: All or Nothing.
She was a vocal supporter of Ukraine after Russia's invasion, launching a relief fund and telling CNN she could not 'continue to sit on the sidelines'. Klitschko's brother Vitali is the mayor of Kyiv.
She leaves behind her daughter Kaya.
Read more of VT's coverage: Health complaint Panettiere had before her death revealed | 911 call audio appears to reveal cause of death | Police reveal new details after sudden death