Hayden Panettiere: Relinquishing Custody of Daughter Was the ‘Most Heartbreaking Thing’

Hayden Panettiere is sharing her truth about the custody of her 7-year-old daughter Kaya. The Nashville star appeared on a new episode of Red Table Talk Wednesday, opening up to co-hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield Norris and guest host Kelly Osbourne about the “most heartbreaking thing” of relinquishing custody of her only child to ex Wladimir Klitschko.

In a clip from the conversation shared exclusively with People, Panettiere calls signing the custody papers the “most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”

“You thought this was an agreement that you came to that it was best that your daughter be with her dad,” Banfield Norris asks the actress to clarify.

“At first it was not because it wasn’t a discussion,” the actress explains. “If [Klitschko] had come to me and said I think because of where you’re at right now and your struggles that you’re having it would be good for her to be over here with me for a while — which if I had probably had enough of a conversation I would’ve said okay that makes sense, I get it, I’ll come there to visit and stuff like that.”

Watch the clip below:

The Bring It On actress has previously opened up about her struggles with postpartum depression after she gave birth to her daughter on Live Kelly and Ryan in 2017. She also spoke about how she faced challenges in sustaining her family.

Klitschko, 46, is a Ukrainian former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2017. The former couple met in 2009 at the book launch of Panettiere’s mother’s friend Diana Jenkins. The pair began dating soon after that but separated in May 2011, citing they couldn’t manage a relationship that was “between two continents.”

Two years later in 2013, Hayden said that she and Wladimir were back together, and they soon got serious after their reunion, getting engaged six months after they rekindled their romance. The couple soon experienced problems again, with Hayden battling mental health issues and Wladimir busy with his boxing career. They eventually called it quits in 2018 after being together for about nine years.