Inside Hayden Panettiere’s Family: All About Her Parents, Daughter & More
Heroes alum Hayden Panettiere tragically died on August 16 at the age of 36. The actress was found dead inside a South Carolina home, and the cause of her death remains undetermined.
Panettiere started acting as a child and grew up onscreen. During her days on Nashville, she welcomed her only daughter. Three years before her sudden death, Panettiere lost her beloved brother. Learn more about Hayden Panettiere’s family, what happened to her brother, and her daughter below.
Who are Hayden Panettiere’s parents?
Panettiere’s parents are Lesley Vogel and Alan “Skip” Panettiere. Her father once worked as a firefighter in New York City. Her mother appeared in three episodes of Loving in the 1980s and starred in the 1994 film Sister Sensei. Vogel managed her daughter’s character until Panettiere was 19. At the time, Panettiere didn’t want their relationship to be tied to business. When the actress told her mother of her plans, Panettiere recalled in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, that her mother “picked up her purse, clenched her jaw, and looked straight at me. ‘You owe me,’ she answered.”
Looking back, Panettiere told The Independent in May 2026, “On one hand, I wasn’t surprised by her reaction. On the other hand, it was heartbreaking. Having a normal relationship [with me] wasn’t something that interested her. And it was also maybe something she wasn’t even capable of.” As of May, Panettiere had gone “no-contact” with her mother, but she was open to reconciliation.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” her father told People 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.”
What happened to Hayden Panettiere’s brother?
Panettiere’s younger brother, Jansen, was an actor like his sister and had a number of roles over the years in shows like Even Stevens and The Walking Dead. Jansen died on February 19, 2023, at the age of 28. His cause of death was later determined to be cardiomegaly (enlarged heart) coupled with aortic valve complications.
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“He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him,” she told People in her first interview after her brother’s death. “When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul.”
She added, “I will always be heartbroken about it. I will never be able to get over it. No matter how many years go by, I will never get over his loss.”
Where is Hayden Panettiere’s daughter now?
Panettiere is survived by her 11-year-old, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, whom she shared with her ex-fiancé, Wladimir Klitschko. Kaya was born in December 2014.
The Scream 4 star had been candid in the past about her difficult childbirth and the postpartum depression she experienced afterward. Panettiere also dealt with opioid and alcohol addiction, which led to her daughter living in Europe with her father while Panettiere sought treatment.
“That was incredibly difficult. The fact that my child wasn’t going to be with me all day, every day was…you can’t put words to it. It’s just a really intense feeling, or multiple feelings really layered together,” Panettiere said on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast earlier this year.
She added, “So by the time I finally got healthy, I felt like it would have been unfair of me to, and selfish of me to try to pull her out of this life that she had been [creating], this life that she had been living. An incredible life.”
