Actress Hayden Panettiere is opening up about “the most heartbreaking thing” she’s ever had to do.
In new “Red Table Talk” clips posted Wednesday, the “Nashville” star told hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield Norris and guest host Kelly Osbourne about relinquishing custody of her only child Kaya, 7, in 2018 to her ex, former professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko is Kaya’s father.
Answering a question on the most “misunderstood thing” about her, Panettiere cited “the idea that I’m a person who would just easily throw out my child, you know, give away my child.”
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
“I mean it was the worst signing those papers and like the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever, ever had to do in my life,” she said.
“The papers were to give him full custody and I was gonna go work on myself and I was gonna get better,” she added. “And when I got better, then things could change and she could come to me and I could have my time with her. But that didn’t happen.”
In July, the actress told People and “Good Morning America” that she had been struggling with alcoholism and postpartum depression “for a long time.” When her hit show “Nashville” ended in 2018, Panettiere said the years that followed were difficult and she found herself turning to alcohol.
“People around me were more concerned about my usage of alcohol than they ever were about the postpartum depression,” she told “GMA” at the time.
She added that she “didn’t have any negative feelings” toward each child but knew that she was “deeply depressed.”
In Tuesday’s “Red Table Talk” clips, from a new episode that will air Wednesday on Facebook Watch, Panettiere claimed that the custody decision “wasn’t a discussion.”
“If he had come to me and said, you know, ‘I think because of where you’re at right now and the struggles that you’re having, it would be good for her to be over here with me for a while, ‘ to which I probably — if I had enough of a conversation, would have said, ‘OK that makes sense I get it, I’ll come there, you know, to visit’ and stuff like that,” Panettiere said. “Because of the way it was done, is very upsetting.”
Panettiere has spoken of her decision to give up custody in the past. In an interview with People published in July, she called relinquishing custody “the hardest thing I could do.”
“But the best thing for my daughter was to make sure she was okay, take care of myself and make sure I could be a good mom to her. And sometimes that means letting go,” she said.
In her interview with “GMA” in July, Panettiere also expressed love for her daughter, who, prior to the ongoing war with Russia, had called Ukraine home, having lived there for several years with Klitschko, who is Ukrainian. (In a February Instagram post, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Panettiere told fans her daughter was “safe” and no longer in Ukraine.)
At the time, Panettiere said she still spoke to Klitschko a lot and said she was grateful for her daughter.
“She’s my favorite little person,” she said. “All of those, like, little good senses that remind me of what I used to be as a like a little kid. She is like that 2.0 version where she’s so much smarter. But she’s incredible. She’s such a little light. She’s such an amazing human being.”
“GMA” has reached out to Klitschko’s representatives for comment on Panettiere’s “Red Table Talk” remarks and will update with a response.