Hayden Panettiere made a poignant statement about aging just three months before she died, days ahead of her 37th birthday.
The late actress, who would have celebrated her birthday on August 21, released her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in May and offered a now heartbreaking perspective on getting older.
Hayden saw aging as an unavoidable process of personal evolution and admitted she would continue to grow until she took her “last breath.”
“One thing I know from my 36 years in the public eye is this: Life is a process that evolves day by day, year by year and — like it or not — you are engaged in a cycle of growth until the moment you take your last breath,” she wrote.
Around the same time, Hayden, who had struggled with addiction and her mental health, said in an interview that she felt she had a “lot more life to live.”
Speaking on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, the mother of one opened up about her struggles, telling the host that she felt she had turned a corner in her efforts to shake off “this darkness.”
She said: “I finally feel like I’ve shaken off all this darkness and this negativity, and that means that I’ve closed one door and another door is opened and I can feel it open and I can feel all the possibilities, all the exciting possibilities.”
She added: “I feel like I have a lot more life to live.”
How Hayden would have spent her 37th birthday
© InstagramHayden was due to spend her birthday with her 11-year-old daughter Kaya in Germany, and was “so excited” to see her, according to Page Six.
Hayden relinquished primary custody to her ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko when Kaya was four to seek treatment for her struggles with alcohol and opioid addiction. The Heroes star had been incredibly candid about suffering from severe postpartum depression.
Hayden’s cause of death
© Getty ImagesHayden’s death was confirmed in a statement issued on Sunday, August 16, though the cause has not yet been confirmed.
“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,” her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement.
Hayden’s representative also confirmed her death in a statement to HELLO! “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” it read, adding: “An investigation is ongoing and cause of death has not yet been determined.”
© FilmMagicOn August 16, Hayden was found by police in a Greenville, South Carolina, apartment after they received a call reporting that the actress was “unresponsive” and in “cardiac arrest.”
According to the 911 recording, the paramedics tried to resuscitate her, yet ultimately pronounced her dead at 2:32 p.m.
Authorities have confirmed that there were no “signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.”
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