Hayden Panettiere has opened up about her traumatic birth experience and consequent battle with postpartum depression, which led to her giving up custody of her daughter.
The 36-year-old first revealed her harrowing journey into motherhood in her new memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.
Speaking to CBS News’ Gayle King about her experience birthing her now 11-year-old daughter Kaya, whom she shares with her former fiance Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko, the actress revealed, “I had a really rough birth to the point where I almost didn’t make it through.
“And then the postpartum depression started. There I am with this beautiful, healthy, beautiful baby girl and this very fortunate life, and I could not for the life of me be happy.
“I was so depressed.”
The Nashville star said the experience was very different from the version of motherhood she had envisioned for herself.
“I had all these ideas in my head of what I wanted to do as a mum, as a parent. I think I was also scared because of what my mum did to me that I might do that to my child.”
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Panettiere has been open about her relationship with her mother and former manager Lesley Vogel, with the star having been on screen since she was eleven months old.
At age 19, she ended her business relationship with her mother, which also led to the breakdown of their mother-daughter relationship.
After being unable to deal with her mental health issues and motherhood together, Panettiere signed over custody of Kaya to Klitschko, 50, in 2018.
The actress says she keeps in touch with Kaya, who lives with her father in Ukraine.
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“I’m so blessed to have a great relationship with her. I fly over there as much as I can. I’m on FaceTime with her all the time,” said the actress.
“She’s now 11-years-old and she’s calling mummy more and more,” she said, with the pre-teen now becoming a fan of her mum’s character, cheer captain Britney Allen, in her 2006 film Bring It On: All or Nothing.
“She actually FaceTimed me the other day and she calls me Britney. She goes, ‘Hey Britney.’ It took me a second, and then I realised she was talking about Bring It On. Because her friends are fans of Bring It On.’
“She’s now asking me to Zoom with her friends. So, I’m cool now,” the chuffed mum said.
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