The worst point came when the actor was told by doctors that her liver might fail.
Hayden Panettiere, who shot to fame in NBC’s Heroes, has spoken frankly about a struggle with addiction that she says could have cost her career.
The 32-year-old, who also suffered a debilitating period of postpartum depression, told PEOPLE: “I was on top of the world and I ruined it.”
In the last year she’s undergone both trauma therapy and inpatient treatment — which she described as “a lot of work,” but vital.
“This hasn’t been easy and there were a lot of ups and downs,” she told the magazine. “But I don’t regret even the ugliest things that have happened to me. I feel incredibly accomplished. And I feel like I have a second chance.”
Panettiere, who also starred in Nashville, said she’d thought she’d seen the worst of her mental health struggles, but the combination of addiction and depression proved worse than she’d thought possible.
“I’d think I hit rock bottom, but then there’s that trap door that opens,” she explained.
Having started acting as a child and become a recognizable face before she hit her teens, Panettiere was exposed to drugs at an early age, long before she could have realized the potential consequences of sampling pills.
“They were to make me peppy during interviews,” she said of someone on her team who began offering her drugs before red carpets. “I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing.”
The worst point came when the actor was told by doctors that her liver might fail, after she was admitted to the hospital suffering from jaundice. After that, she underwent eight months of intense treatment to begin to steer her towards a healthier place. Now, she’s looking forward to starring in a new Scream movie, and has started a relief fund for Ukraine. Her ex, Wladimir Klitschko, who is the father of their seven-year-old daughter, is Ukrainian — and his brother Vitali is the mayor of Kyiv.
