Celebrity3 min(s) read
Hayden Panettiere shared powerful message behind tattoo she ‘literally had to live by’ since 19
.webp_SmgFsc?tr=cr-292.0.1244.952,f-webp,q-70,w-100)
Tributes have poured in following the sudden passing of actress Hayden Panettiere at age 36. First responders were called to an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday, August 16, 2026, where she was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead.
Officials from the Greenville Police Department confirmed that a preliminary investigation showed no indications of foul play or suspicious circumstances.
Her father, Skip Panettiere, expressed his grief in a statement: "It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. 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."
Panettiere rose to fame at a young age, delivering recognizable performances in films like Remember the Titans and Raising Helen. She later gained widespread acclaim for playing a cheerleader with superpowers in Heroes and an ambitious country singer in Nashville.
Beyond her screen achievements, her personal life frequently caught public attention, including a notable story regarding a decision she made as a teenager.
Living with an unexpected mistake
Shortly after becoming engaged to boxing star Wladimir Klitschko in 2013, Panettiere spoke about an ink design she got on her back when she was 19 years old. She intended to get the Italian phrase "Vivere senza rimpianti," which translates to "Live without regrets." However, the tattoo artist misspelled the word for regrets as "rimipianti."
Reflecting on the spelling mistake, she joked during an interview with Glamour: "So I literally have to live by that advice."
Explaining the meaning behind the phrase, she recalled a moment from her youth: "When I was younger, I was upset, and my dad said he wanted to show me something. He slammed one door of the bathroom, and the closet door popped open, it was a trick with the air. He said, Whenever one door closes, another one always opens." She added: "It's not that you don't regret things in life, but you at least try to learn from them."
Personal battles and family life
During that same 2013 interview, Panettiere described her peers as the "Messy Generation, the generation of the disaster child."
Aged 23 at the time, she noted: "I will never say that I'm perfect; I will never pretend to be perfect. That's just unrealistic. You're kind of unexpectedly put in this position of becoming a role model; that's not something you choose."
In December 2014, Panettiere and Klitschko welcomed a daughter, Kaya. Speaking about becoming a parent, she shared with Glamour: "Motherhood is the most beautiful, exciting thing, and there's nothing that I feel like I can't accomplish while having children in my life."
Her journey with motherhood eventually coincided with major personal challenges. While dealing with post-partum depression, anxiety, alcoholism, and substance abuse, she made the choice in 2018 to yield primary custody of Kaya to Klitschko.
She temporarily stepped away from screen work to prioritize her health and recovery, later returning to act in Scream VI in 2023. Fans and fellow actors have since turned to social media to share messages of sympathy for her family and daughter.