Hayden Panettiere Details 2018 Custody Relinquishment

Hayden Panettiere recently detailed the circumstances surrounding her 2018 decision to relinquish full custody of her daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, to her ex-fiancé, former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, amid struggles with postpartum depression, addiction, anxiety, and alcoholism.

Panettiere, 36, shared her account during an appearance on the On Purpose podcast with Jay Shetty, where she promoted her upcoming memoir, This Is Me A Reckoning. She described the choice as heartbreaking but necessary for her recovery. "The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be OK with it is heartbreaking. It couldn't be further from the truth," she said. Panettiere explained that Kaya, then nearly 3 years old, had been living primarily with Klitschko in Ukraine. She recounted signing custody papers under duress from her personal challenges, initially believing she would regain custody after treatment. "Because of the way that it was done, it was very upsetting. I mean, it was the worst, signing those papers, the most heartbreaking thing I've ever had to do in my life," she said in a prior 2022 interview on Red Table Talk.