Hayden Panettiere, the actress and singer best known for playing rising country star Juliette Barnes on the musical drama Nashville, has died. She was 36. Her representative confirmed the news to ABC News. A cause of death was not immediately available.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement. “She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen.” He asked for privacy as the family processes the loss.
Though she built her career primarily as an actress, Panettiere left a notable musical mark through Nashville, where she starred from 2012 to 2018 opposite Connie Britton. Her performances drove the show’s companion soundtrack series, released via Big Machine Records and a steady presence on Billboard’s charts. The first volume, The Music of Nashville: Season 1, Volume 1, debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on Top Country Albums in 2012, moving 56,000 copies in its opening week. Subsequent installments regularly landed high on the country and soundtrack charts. Tracks she performed as Juliette Barnes — among them “Telescope,” “Don’t Put Dirt on My Grave Just Yet,” and the duet “Wrong Song” — found an audience with country listeners, and the role earned her two Golden Globe nominations.
Her music work stretched back further. As a teenager she recorded songs for family films and teen-pop compilations. After landing the role of Claire Bennet on NBC’s Heroes, she signed with Hollywood Records and released the 2008 single “Wake Up Call.”
Born in Palisades, New York, in 1989, Panettiere started acting as a child, with early credits including Ally McBeal, Remember the Titans, Message in a Bottle, and a voice role in Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. Her breakout came with Heroes in 2006. Later film roles included Scream 4 and Scream VI, I Love You, Beth Cooper, and the TV movie Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy.
Panettiere was open about the pressures that came with growing up in the public eye. In May she released her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning and spoke about fame, motherhood, and mental health, including postpartum depression. She shared a daughter, Kaya, with former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko; the couple’s on-and-off relationship ended in 2018. Her death comes a little more than two years after that of her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, who died in 2023 at 28.
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