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Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere has died aged 36.
A representative for the STAR confirmed the tragic news in a statement to PEOPLE
The statement read: “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of ourhayden
“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.”
Speaking to , her father Skip Panettiere asked for privacy as the ‘family takes time to process
No further details surrounding her death have been shared.
Panettiere appeared on screen for the first time at just 11 months old in a commercial. From there, she began acting in 1994 after securing a role on the soap One Life to Live at just four years old, before moving to rival soap Guiding Light in 1996, where she remained until 2000.
Hayden Panettiere has died aged 36 (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
At just nine years old she made her feature film debut, as the narrator and voice of Princess Dot in A Bug’s Life, for which she nominated for a Young Artist Award and Grammy Award, and later lent her voice to video game Until Dawn.
However, she’s perhaps best-known for the role of Claire Bennet, a high school cheerleader with healing powers, on the hit NBC series Heroes.
She later played Juliette Barnes on the musical drama Nashville, earning herself several award nominations and appearing in six seasons of the popular show.
Panettiere also made several appearances on the big screen, with roles in Scream 4, Remember the Titans, and Raising Helen.
The difficult decision to give up full custody of her daughter
In May this year, she released a in which she opened up about being as well as her struggles with postpartum depression, addiction and recovery.
And it was these struggles that the star said helped her make the difficult decision to give up custody of her only daughter, Kaya, who she shares with her former partner and professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko, in 2018.
Speaking on Jay Shetty’s just weeks ago, Panettiere said she was initially against the idea when her ex partner suggested it.
“That was incredibly difficult. The fact that my child wasn’t going to be with me all day every day was just … you can’t put words to it,” she said.
However, she changed her mind after realising how stressful it was for the youngster to travel back and forth between the US and Ukraine and seeing what a ‘beautiful life’ she had out there.
Panettiere stayed in regular contact with her child before her death.
