Published: 05:30 BST, 18 August 2026 | Updated: 05:35 BST, 18 August 2026
Hayden Panettiere's heartbroken father was only beginning to recover from his son's untimely death when the Heroes star was found dead on Sunday, neighbors revealed.
The former child star, who was known for her roles on the hit NBC series Heroes and musical drama Nashville, was pronounced dead at an Airbnb in Greenville, South Carolina from an apparent overdose.
Her death at the age of 36 comes just three years after her brother, Jansen, passed away at the age of 28 in February 2023 from complications with his 'enlarged' heart.
Their father, Alan 'Skip' Panettiere, 'retreated' from his close-knit community of Piermont, New York in the aftermath, a neighbor told the New York Post.
Another claimed he finally 'seemed like he was starting to come back from it' when he learned that his daughter was dead.
She had just visited him the month before, the neighbors said.
A friend of the late actress's said she had also planned to take a trip to visit her 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, in Ukraine, where she lives with her father, Wladimir Klitschko.
'She was talking about how she wanted to take a vacation and that she wanted to go and see her daughter,' Panettiere's good friend Erick Orellana told Page Six.
'Her daughter was always her absolute priority,' he added. 'She loved her so much.'
Hayden Panettiere's father had reportedly just been recovering from the death of his son, Jansen, when he found out his daughter died on Sunday. The actress is pictured here with her mother, younger brother and father
Panettiere had just visited her father in New York last month. They are pictured together at a LA Lakers game in 2009
The actress was reportedly planning a trip to Ukraine to see her daughter, who is now 11
Orellana, who has worked as Panettiere's hairstylist for three years, also emphasized that she 'loved spending time with Kaya' and would always show off the preteen's photos and tell him stories about her daughter.
'Her daughter was the absolute light of her life,' he said. 'She lit up whenever she spoke about her.
