Hayden Panettiere says Wladimir Klitschko forced her to give up custody of her daughter

Hayden Panettiere said that she does not see her seven-year-old daughter Kaya Evdokia because of her father Wladimir Klitschko, who prevents this. The actress shared her story on Jada Pinkett-Smith's Red Table Talk.

According to Hayden, the girl's father , 46-year-old Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko, left her no choice, forcing her to transfer custody of the child to him in 2018 due to Hayden's problems with drugs and alcohol.

Previously, Panettiere admitted that from the age of 15 she suffered from alcohol and drug addictions. The actress struggled with them for a long time, trying to be distracted by work, but after the birth of Kaya in 2014, the situation got out of control against the backdrop of postpartum depression . This was the reason for Klitschko to take full custody of the girl four years later.

Hayden then took her health seriously: doctors warned her that if she did not stop drinking, her liver would fail. The celebrity went to rehab for eight months . She says she has been sober ever since. The tabloids wrote at the time that Panettiere "refused her daughter," which left the actress deeply traumatized. She really agreed to temporarily entrust the upbringing of the child to Vladimir, but she did not make a decision regarding the refusal of custody. As she says, her opinion was not even taken into account:

It wasn't discussed. The way it was done made me very upset... If he came to me and said: "You know, because of your condition, it would be better if she lived with me for a while...". And if we devoted enough time to the discussion, I would probably agree that it's better for everyone that I would come and see her.

Hayden called signing custody papers the hardest thing she had to do in her life. As the celebrity says, her hopes for a gradual resumption of relations with her daughter did not come true:

I was going to work on myself and hoped that when I feel better, everything will change and she will be able to come to me, I will spend time with her, but this did not happen.

Wladimir Klitschko and Hayden Panettiere with their daughter Wladimir Klitschko and Hayden Panettiere with their daughter

Hayden and Vladimir were together from 2009 to 2018. After parting , the athlete took the child to his homeland.

The actress told subscribers that the girl speaks Russian and is studying Ukrainian . Hayden communicates with her daughter mainly via FaceTime. After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Panettiere reassured her fans by saying that the girl was no longer in the country and that she was safe. Where are Klitschko and Kaya now, she did not specify.

Hayden spoke at length about her addiction problems to People magazine this summer. At the same time, she spoke about the experience of a toxic relationship: actor Brian Hickerson, with whom Panettiere began dating in 2018, repeatedly beat her , and also threatened to publish a compromising video. As a result, he ended up behind bars on charges of domestic violence, albeit not for long : the actor was sentenced to 45 days in prison and four years of probation.