HAYDEN Panettiere has revealed in a new interview that her liver “gave way” due to a secret opioid addiction she had been dealing with for years.
The actress admitted that she did not want to see her daughter during her struggles.
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Hayden talked about her addictions in the latest issue of: PEOPLE†
She told the publication that she was only 15 when someone from her team would give her “happy pills” before walking the red carpet, which made her feel optimistic during interviews.
This led to an addiction to opioids and alcohol.
“I had no idea this wasn’t appropriate, or what door it would open for me when it came to my addiction,” the actress told the publication.
Hayden couldn’t live with the compensated drugs and alcohol and eventually her life revolved around them.
“I was on top of the world and I screwed up,” she said.
Her addiction got so bad that she “got the chills when she woke up,” which would only be cured by drinking some alcohol.
The actress revealed that she had to go to hospital for treatment and that her liver was failing.
SCARY DIAGNOSIS
Her drinking problem got worse and she eventually had to go to the hospital.
There she was diagnosed with jaundicewhich is a “condition in which the skin, whites of the eyes, and mucous membranes turn yellow due to high levels of bilirubin, a yellow-orange bile pigment.”
Doctors told Hayden her liver would fail if she didn’t get help.
“I was no longer a 20-year-old who could just bounce back,” she said.
She ended up going to rehab for eight months and told PEOPLE that she was finally “over the bump.”
POSTNATAL DEPRESSION
To add to her addictions, Hayden suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, So.in 2015.
She shares Kaya with her ex, Wladimir Klitschko.
“I would think I’ve hit rock bottom, but then there’s that hatch that opens,” admitted Hayden.
Her real-life pregnancy was written into her role in Nashville, but it soon became apparent that her character’s demons were also something she faced.
“Those were really tough years. I could relate to a lot of those storylines, like alcoholism and postpartum depression. They came close to home,” she said.
“I never felt like I wanted to harm my child, but I didn’t want to spend time with her,” Hayden said of her PPD.
“There was just this gray color in my life.”
Although the actress sought treatment for her depression, she still struggled and depended on alcohol to get through most of the days.
She eventually sought treatment for her depression.
FAMILY PROBLEM
Drugs and alcohol can be difficult to deal with in a relationship.
She met Wladimir in 2009 at a book launch and they hit it off and they started dating shortly after.
They had split up in 2011 due to the long distance, but got back together in 2013.
Finally, Wladimir proposed in 2014 and they welcomed their first child together in 2015.
Her relationship hit rock bottom when she would sneak out for a drink because she couldn’t handle it all.
“He didn’t want to be near me,” she admitted.
In 2018, the couple had split up and Hayden made the difficult decision to send Kaya to live with Wladimir in Ukraine.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But I wanted to be a good mom to her — and sometimes that means I have to let them go,” she said.
After giving her daughter a better life, Hayden found out about her liver.
LOOKING FOR TREATMENT
After entering rehab, Hayden “finally found the peace she longed for.”
“It’s a daily choice, and I check with myself all the time. But I’m just so grateful to be a part of this world again, and I’ll never take it for granted again,” she told PEOPLE.
After having to give her daughter to her ex, she was determined to put a lot of work into herself.
She “understood both trauma therapy and inpatient treatment in the past year” and will return to the big screen the following year scream movie.
Hayden hasn’t had much luck in relationships like she was in a… abusive relationship with Brian Hickerson to Wladimir.
They split in 2020 after he was arrested for bodily harm to a spouse/cohabitant, assault and intimidation of a witness, but eventually they got back together.
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