Hayden Panettiere dealt with debilitating health issues that affected her mobility in the months before her sudden loss at age 36, according to a longtime friend.
The “Nashville” star’s hairdresser and friend Erick Orellana told Page Six that Panettiere struggled with significant back problems earlier this year.
“I know she suffered earlier this year with her back,” Orellana said.
He described Panettiere’s pain as “really severe” and said the problem became serious enough to affect her ability to move.
“At one point, it was even hard for her to move her legs,” Orellana said.
The “Heroes” star’s mobility issues had previously become visible publicly. She was photographed using crutches while traveling through Los Angeles International Airport with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson in March.
Despite the severity of the problem, Orellana said Panettiere appeared to be improving before her sudden loss.
He said it seemed like the “Heroes” star was “starting to be on the mend.”
Hayden Panettiere Insider Says Actress Also Struggled With Anxiety
A second source told the outlet that the “Scream” star had experienced other health challenges earlier in the year.
“Earlier this year, she did seem a little tired at times. But she was a night owl, and … she has a lot on her plate,” the source said.
The insider also claimed Panettiere “suffered from anxiety at times” and would “occasionally take medication for that.”
“And every so often that could impact her speech,” the source added.
Neither source connected Panettiere’s back problems, anxiety or medication to what happened on Sunday. Her official cause and manner of death have not been announced.
Panettiere had also publicly discussed her previous struggles with addiction and her sobriety. She released her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” in May and had spoken about moving forward after difficult periods in her life.
The ‘Scream’ Star Opened Up About Recovery & ‘Shaking’ the Darkness
During an appearance on “Red Table Talk,” the former “Guiding Light” star recalled being introduced to pills as a teenager while working in Hollywood.
“Somebody who was on my team that I was working with came to me, and it was before this red carpet and I had been doing ‘Heroes’ and we did press all the time and I was a little low-energy,” she said. “[They said], ‘Here, take one of these, it’s a happy pill, it’ll give you energy.’ I didn’t think of it at the time as a bad thing or a drug.”
“It did give me that little bit of energy and I didn’t feel like, high and out of control, but I did feel happy and like I was looking forward to doing interviews, yes,” she added.
The actress entered treatment in 2020 for what became an eight-month stay as she worked on her recovery. Years later, Panettiere appeared hopeful about the future while speaking with Jay Shetty on his podcast in May, just three months before her loss at age 36.
Fighting back tears during the two-hour conversation, Panettiere reflected on moving beyond some of the most difficult periods of her life.
“Let’s see where my life is going to go, because I finally feel like I have shaken all of this darkness and negativity, and that means I’ve closed one door and another door is opened, and I can feel it opened,” Panettiere told Shetty. “I feel like I have a lot more life to live.”
