Hayden Panettiere’s close friend has revealed the poignant final text she sent him before her shock death at 36.
Panettiere, who would have turned 37 on August 21, was found ‘unresponsive’ by officers and paramedics in an apartment block in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday, and she was later pronounced dead at the scene following a suspected overdose.
Police and the local coroner’s office are probing the death, but said the ‘preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances’.
The star and her on-off, real estate agent boyfriend Brian Hickerson, who was previously jailed for abusing her, were said to have flown from Los Angeles to South Carolina, where he is from, one day before she died.
In the wake of her death, her close friend, musician Clayton Johnson, 37, paid tribute to the actress, and revealed her hopes for ‘world peace’ in the final text message she ever sent him.
Sharing a video of the pair singing together, he wrote, ‘Sweet Hayden.
Hayden Panettiere’s close friend has revealed the poignant final text she sent him weeks before her shock death at 36. The Hollywood star is pictured here at the Emmy Awards in 2012
Her close friend, musician Clayton Johnson, 37, paid tribute to the actress, and revealed her hopes for ‘world peace’ in the final text message she ever sent him
‘I spent last night trying to process, to try to find the right words, but there really aren’t any.
‘More than anything, I hope you’re at peace now and reunited with Jansen.
‘It’s been a couple of weeks since our last phone call, but the last thing you ever texted me was, “Honestly, people think it’s a joke to ask for world peace, but that would be me.”
‘That was you in a nutshell. I’m grateful I got to know you, and I’ll always be grateful for the memories. Fly high, Hayden.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Johnson for further comment.
Narcan was found in the apartment where Panettiere died, it was reported on Monday.
The nasal spray, which is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, was found on a mattress in a loft apartment Panettiere was staying in when she died Sunday, TMZ reported.
It is still unclear if that Narcan had been used to try and revive Panettiere, although 911 audio obtained earlier on Monday revealed that the actress had gone into cardiac arrest following a suspected overdose.
On Monday, Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said that Panettiere’s autopsy had been completed and that no signs of trauma were found on the star’s body.
Johnson said Panettiere wrote to him, ‘It’s been a couple of weeks since our last phone call, but the last thing you ever texted me was, “Honestly, people think it’s a joke to ask for world peace, but that would be me”’
Further investigations will now take place to establish her cause of death, with Chief Deputy Coroner Shelton England telling the Daily Mail that it was too early to discuss the drug overdose theory.
In an audio of a 911 call made at 1.51pm Sunday, a female dispatcher described the actress as suffering a ‘cardiac arrest.’
A few moments later, a male dispatcher could be heard saying that Panettiere had suffered a suspected overdose at the home.
The actress was pronounced dead at the scene at 2.32pm, just over 40 minutes after the first 911 call was made.
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office has completed the star’s autopsy, with the coroner telling the Daily Mail that ‘no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death.’
Panettiere was found ‘unresponsive inside the residence, where she had been temporarily staying,’ the coroner said in a statement.
Investigators will carry out additional studies as they continue to work the case, the coroner’s statement said.
Panettiere leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter with ex, Wladimir Klitschko
The actress had a history of suffering from drug addiction, beginning when she was just 15 years old. At the time, she claimed she started taking ‘happy pills’ in an effort to make her seem more ‘peppy’ during interviews.
Her addiction worsened while she was battling postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter Kaya in 2014.
But Panettiere has been sober in recent years, she said in a 2022 interview, noting that ‘it’s an everyday battle.’
‘It’s an everyday choice, and I’m checking in with myself all the time,’ Panettiere told People at the time. ‘But I’m just so grateful to be part of this world again, and I will never take it for granted again.’
Panettiere has also told how she nearly died during childbirth, and later gave full custody of Kaya to her former fiancé, Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
Kaya, now 11, lives in Europe with her father.
Speaking of the decision, Panettiere said she ‘desperately’ needed help at the time and insisted that Kaya does not feel ‘abandoned’ while appearing in a recent episode of the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast.
‘The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be okay with it is heartbreaking. Couldn’t be further from the truth,’ the actress said.
‘I was struggling with mental health and anxiety and postpartum and having to act my way through it, and just feeling like I completely lost myself,’ she added.
The actress shared how she struggled with the decision to give Klitschko full custody.
‘It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, nor was it a decision I even wanted to make,’ she said.
‘I was going through a really challenging time in my life… I knew I needed to be able to put her first so that I could get the help I needed and be the mum she needed me to be.’
After giving birth to her daughter in 2014, Panettiere recalled hemorrhaging before she underwent seven blood transfusions and surgery to repair vessels that had begun to fail.
She said: ‘I closed my eyes and just prayed for my daughter to be OK. I truly was ready to go if it was my time. Kaya being safe and healthy was all that mattered.’
However, days later, she recalled feeling ‘nothing’ when looking at her daughter and developed postnatal depression. The actress then turned to drinking.
She said: ‘I turned to wine, which ultimately ended up leading to an alcohol dependency. It was how I would get through each day.’
Although she underwent treatment, Panettiere felt the ‘root cause’ of her drinking, the depression, was not addressed.
‘I wish more people had known what it was at the time. Maybe I wouldn’t have waited so long to get help,’ she said.
Panettiere is remembered for her role as Claire Bennet on the hit NBC series Heroes
She played Juliette Barnes on the ABC show Nashville, releasing a number of her own songs
Six years on from giving up custody, Panettiere spoke about her current relationship with her daughter.
She said: ‘I love my daughter, and I’m so proud of the young woman she is becoming. I talk to her all the time, and I feel so connected to her. She’s like a mini-me.’
The actress went on to say she had ‘been able to put her first no matter how I’ve felt or what I’ve experienced’ and that she hoped that one day Kaya would ‘understand my story and why I wasn’t able to be with her all the time’.
She then called herself ‘resilient’ and a ‘work in progress’, but that she was ‘doing the work… and doing my best’.
In May, Panettiere released her memoir titled This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she also detailed being separated from her only child.
‘Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life, and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion – including sadness, resentment, and anger – I’ve felt because of it,’ she wrote.
‘I grieve that I’m not the mother I thought I’d be and definitely not the mother I want to be (trust me, no one should ever have to raise a child on FaceTime), and although I miss Kaya so much my heart aches, I know how blessed I am to be her mom.
‘She is the greatest gift of my life, with all the best parts of her father and me.’
