Daughter with Klitschko: Hayden Panettiere talks about waiving custody

Daughter with Klitschko
Hayden Panettiere talks about guardianship exemption

9/27/2022, 10:02 PM

After American actress Hayden Panettiere made her alcohol addiction and postpartum depression public, she is now revealing more details about the custody agreement with ex Wladimir Klitschko. Giving up was the most heartbreaking thing she’s ever had to do.

Hayden Panettiere finds open words on a highly emotional topic in the Facebook conversation format “Red Table Talk” by Jada Pinkett Smith and her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris. The 33-year-old actress has been candid about giving custody of her seven-year-old daughter Kaya to her ex-partner Wladimir Klitschko, according to a first clip of the show that was leaked to People magazine.

When asked by Banfield-Norris whether they had agreed it was best for her daughter to be with her father, Panettiere replied: “Not at first because it wasn’t a discussion. If he had come to me and said I think because of your current situation and the struggles you are having it would be good for her to be here with me for a while – and if there was enough talk I would have said ok that makes sense I get it, I’m coming to see her and so on.” It was very difficult because of the way it was done, she continues. “It was the worst thing I had to sign those papers, the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”

Panettiere further clarifies that the papers were there to give 46-year-old Klitschko full custody. “I wanted to work on myself, wanted to get better and thought that if I get better things will change and she can come to me and I can spend my time with her, but that didn’t happen,” you say. In July, Panettiere first opened up about her opioid and alcohol addiction. In an interview with “People”, she said, among other things, that she had struggled with her addiction and postpartum depression for years. At her lowest point, she was shaking as soon as she woke up and “only worked with a sip of alcohol”.

In 2014 she was pregnant with daughter Kaya. When the little one was born, the young mother had big problems. “I never felt like I wanted to harm my child, but I didn’t want to spend time with her,” Panettiere said. She didn’t drink anything during the pregnancy, but after giving birth it went downhill again. Before long, the relationship with the child’s father, Klitschko, also crumbled. The two eventually broke up in 2018. In the same year, she made the decision to send daughter Kaya to her father in Ukraine. “I wanted to be a good mother to her — and sometimes that means I have to let her go.” Panettiere finally decided to seek help. She had a relationship with the former professional boxer Klitschko from 2010 to 2018 with a break and also got engaged.