Hayden Panettiere Is Making Moves in Her Hollywood Comeback With This Major Project
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Hayden Panettiere is making her way back to Hollywood with a comeback that will probably open new doors for her. The 34-year-old star will be penning her memoir, Scream and Break Free: Addiction, Trauma, and How the Cheerleader Saved Herself, for an early 2026 launch.
The news, confirmed by People, will chronicle her rise in the entertainment industry and the toll her alcoholism and drug addiction took on both her professional and personal life. “It’s both daunting and exciting to be able to share my story in book form,” she explained to the outlet. “You may laugh a little, cry a little, but most importantly, you’ll hopefully finish it feeling inspired. I’ve grown so much from my experiences.”
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Panettiere first opened up about her struggles to People in 2022 where she revealed how opioids, alcohol, and a severe case of postpartum depression after having daughter Kaya, 9, changed the course of her life. “I was on top of the world, and I ruined it,” she admitted. “I’d think I hit rock bottom, but then there’s that trap door that opens.” The Nashville star, who has been sober for about three years now, revealed to The New York Times last year that she only keeps one photo of herself from the height of her addiction — and she shared her reason why.
“To remind myself what I looked like,” she explained. “The fact that I thought I looked OK at that time is the scariest part to me.” With her life back on track, Panettiere wanted to tell her story in a raw and honest way. “I hope that this opportunity to further elaborate on that journey may provide a little comfort for those who have faced similar challenges,” she noted to People. “I’m truly grateful for every lesson, and for the woman I have become today.”
Panettiere first shot into the public eye as a child actor on the daytime soap, One Life to Live, in 1994. Her profile grew after she played the cheerleader Clair Bennet in 2006 on Heroes and cemented her stardom in Nashville beginning in 2012. However, the writers may have taken her storylines too far, telling The Messenger, how that made her feel.
“Straight from the beginning it was like, I’m dating a football player, Juliette dates a football player,” she said of her Nashville character. “And then they turned her into an alcoholic. Then, they turned to her leaving her daughter and going to this crazy [place] in Europe. And it was very obvious … they weren’t doing their homework. They weren’t creating new storylines. They were just looking at my life and going, ‘Oh, let’s just take what she’s going through and put our little spin on it.'”
Before you go, click here to see celebrities who have struggled with drug or alcohol addiction.
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