Hayden Panettiere Recently Spoke About Child-Star Pressure, Struggles With Postpartum Depression and Addiction

Just three months before her shocking death Sunday at the age of 36 , Hayden Panettiere made headlines for her candid revelations about her struggles growing up in the entertainment industry.

Panettiere’s memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning that released in May saw her reflecting on everything from the pressure she felt as a child actress to body dysmorphia stemming from paparazzi photos of her as a teenager and disturbing encounters with powerful entertainment industry figures; to her struggles with postpartum depression and substance abuse, as well as losing custody of her daughter Kaya and the death of her younger brother in 2023. Related Stories Lifestyle Hayden Panettiere Recalls "Well-Respected" Oscar Winner Exposing His Testicles to Her When She Was 19 TV Hayden Panettiere on Being "Groomed" to Be a Child Star: "I Was Like a Little Soldier"

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the time to promote her book , Panettiere recalled her past as a child actor in which she felt pressure to do as she was told and succeed.

“I was groomed. I was like a little soldier and I always have been,” she said. “No was never an option. It was just: Here are your scenes, here’s your dialogue, memorize it, hit the marks, do what your director tells you to do. I took my marching orders.”

Panettiere said in the memoir that her mother got her into modeling and took her to auditions, pushing her to succeed as she began starring in commercials as a baby and appearing in roughly 50 by the time she turned 5.

“You always want to think the best of your parents and see them in the brightest light,” she told The New York Times in May tied to the memoir’s publication. “But there were a lot of things done with an approach that was not about my mental health or what was emotionally or mentally safe for me to do. That’s a tough realization.”

She also told the Times that neither of her parents had read the book and told multiple outlets that delving into her childhood and her relationship with her mother was difficult.

“Having to touch on everything about my relationship with my mother, that was one of the harder things to talk about,” Panettiere told THR about her memoir. “While writing it, I realized even more so how much of a toll it took on me.”

Panettiere added that she was worried about rehashing her traumatic past during the book’s press tour, which included interviews with THR , the Times, CBS Mornings, The View and Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast , the latter getting renewed attention after her death.

“One of the things that I was most terrified about, when deciding whether or not to write this book, was that I knew what was going to come along with it,” she said of promoting the memoir.