Hayden Panettiere is clearing up the circumstances surrounding her decision to give full custody of her daughter, Kaya, to ex Wladimir Klitschko.
“The idea that anyone would think that I would just give away my child and be OK with it is heartbreaking and couldn’t be further from the truth,” Panettiere, 36, said during a Monday, May 11, appearance on the “On Purpose With Jay Shetty” podcast.
Panettiere welcomed Kaya, now 11, with Klitschko, 50, in December 2014 while engaged to the Ukrainian boxing icon. However, in 2018, she gave full custody to her ex amid her struggles with postpartum depression and addiction.
“I was struggling with mental health [issues], anxiety, postpartum [depression] and having to act my way through it and feeling like I completely lost myself,” the Heroes actress said of that time period in her life. “The misconception is that I have been forced into treatment when, in fact, I have been the one who has sought it out, who was saying, ‘I desperately need help. I know this is going to look terrible, but I cannot live like this anymore.’”
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Panettiere continued, “Even though Vlad didn’t understand it, the people around me didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t know what was going on, they were supportive. It became this horrible cycle for years of battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse and me just trying to find my way out of this darkness.”
The Nashville star said that after she and Klitschko parted ways, Kaya split her time between the U.S. and Klitschko’s native Ukraine, so when Panettiere sought help, Kaya already had strong ties to her father’s homeland.
“I realized she had been traveling back and forth for so many years … she had spent a lot of time over there, she had family, she had friends, she had extracurricular activities,” she said. “She had a beautiful life. She understood the languages and was starting to speak them.”
“So by the time I finally got healthy, I felt it would have been unfair of me and selfish of me to try to pull her away from this life that she had created,” Panettiere added. “She’s an incredible little girl. So happy. [She] speaks five languages and rides horses and knows that she has two parents that love her. I know in my heart that she feels supported. I have an incredible relationship with her. I travel [to see her] as much as I can. We have a really intense, incredible bond, and I’m very grateful for that.”
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Panettiere reiterated that Kaya “in no way feels abandoned,” saying, “That’s something I’ve made sure to stay on top of and be very aware of.”
“There’s been a common misconception that I just gave up my child, when that couldn’t be farther from the truth,” she said. “I hope it’s a little clearer.”
