Hayden Panettiere custody row: Why did Heroes star relinquish full custody of daughter Kaya to ex-partner?
Hayden Panettiere has died at the age of 36, leaving behind her 11-year-old daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, who was born in December 2014 in Hawaii. She shared her daughter with Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian former heavyweight boxing champion.
Baker announced her engagement to Klitschko in October 2013, and Kaya was born the following year. However, in August 2018, Panettiere’s mother confirmed Panettiere and Klitschko had broken up again but remained on friendly terms.
Panettiere opened up about struggling with postpartum depression in her memoir, recalling that when she met her newborn daughter following a grueling labor and emergency surgery, she “felt nothing.”
Hayden Panettiere custody row
In 2018, Panettiere relinquished full custody of Kaya to Klitschko amid her struggles with addiction and postpartum depression. She described the decision as a “living nightmare” and “heartbreaking.”
Panettiere said that her struggles began taking a toll on both her career and her relationship with Klitschko. She lost her Neutrogena contract and told Klitschko that she did not feel like herself despite treatment.
“I don’t know why you’re so unhappy,” she recalled him telling her. “We have a nice life. You have a nice life.”
Panettiere remembered responding, “You think my depression is a choice?”
The pair’s relationship broke down, and their daughter started going back and forth between her parents. Panettiere said Klitschko eventually handed her custody papers and sought full custody of their daughter because he was worried about the little girl while she was in her care.
In the beginning, Panettiere defended herself, writing that Kaya had “amazing nannies and is surrounded by people who love her.” However, she was still in recovery, and later decided not to fight Klitschko for custody.
Panettiere opened up about the day she signed over custody in her memoir – This Is Me: A Reckoning.
“I remember every second of that day. Every f—ing second,” she wrote. “No mother could forget a single thing about the day she signed her child away.”
She recalled that she did have the financial means to go through a custody battle, but believed that doing so while she was in recovery would have destroyed her.
Panettiere described relinquishing custody as the “most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
“It was the hardest thing I could do,” she told People in 2022. “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.”
‘I grieve that I’m not the mother I thought I’d be’
Even though they lived apart for years, Panettiere said in her memoir that her bond with Kaya remained “incredibly strong.”
“Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life, and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion—including sadness, resentment, and anger—I’ve felt because of it,” she wrote.
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“I grieve that I’m not the mother I thought I’d be and definitely not the mother I want to be (trust me, no one should ever have to raise a child on FaceTime), and although I miss Kaya so much my heart aches, I know how blessed I am to be her mom,” she added. “She is the greatest gift of my life, with all the best parts of her father and me.”
Panettiere took accountability for what she called her “shortcomings as a mom” and praised Klitschko, writing that he was “one of the most courageous people I’ve ever met and a true hero in so many ways.”
“Wlad, you are a wonderful human being and an amazing father to Kaya,” she wrote.
As of May 2026, Panettiere maintained a good, co-parenting relationship with Klitschko. She frequently visited her daughter in Ukraine.
Panettiere’s representative confirmed her death to ABC News.
“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 rep said in a statement.
