Hayden Panettiere Reflects on Entering Rehab While Starring in Nashville: ‘I Just Wanted to Escape’
On ABC’s Nashville, Juliette Barnes’ struggles mirrored star Hayden Panettiere‘s a little too closely, the actress says in a new interview.
“When I was on Nashville, they really wrote my life into it. So on the show, one of the storylines was that I was playing an alcoholic. Another storyline was that I was pregnant on the show, and then I got postpartum depression,” Panettiere says during her appearance on the newest episode of Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk. “I had to go to work every day and be acting out what I was truly going through. So by the time I got home, I didn’t want to sit there with my own feelings and work them out. You know, I just wanted to escape.”
In a sit-down chat with Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield Norris and guest host Kelly Osbourne, Panettiere recalls going to treatment roughly four months after Kaya, her daughter with Wladimir Klitschko, was born in December 2014. The Golden Globe-nominated actress says that she was drinking heavily at the time, “just leaning on that crutch, and it was making things worse.” She adds that she was diagnosed with postpartum depression at the facility where she sought help.
Per Panettiere, her first visit lasted roughly a month; a subsequent one lasted longer. After the country-music drama ended in 2018, she says during the interview, her mental health issues got worse, and she checked into a facility where she wound up staying for eight months.
“I had had it with myself, and I knew it was a longer process,” she says.
Nashville viewers will remember that in October 2015, Panettiere took a very public step back from the show, then in its fourth season. She returned to set the following January but then resumed treatment shortly after the season’s production wrapped.
She appeared in the show’s final two seasons, though Juliette’s involvement in a cult created a reason for Panettiere to be off-screen for a bunch of episodes.
I really like her as an actress. She was the only reason I watched Nashville. I hope that she is doing much better and that I’ll be able to see her onscreen in something new soon.
I’ve always really liked Hayden Panettiere, and it’s really cool she’s talking openly about this. I am excited for her return to Scream and I really hope she is doing well and her career can pick up (if that’s what she wants).
1000% agree with you!
I’ve always liked her too. I’ll be so upset if she’s the opening kill scene in Scream.
That would be the worst! I hope she has a meaty part, she was SO good in Scream 4.
I had hopes for Nashville but after Season 1, it lost its way. The rivalry/frenemy relationship between Juliette and Rayna was lost and because of problems, the show almost was two separate series in one. I am hopeful for HP as she really was good in this show.
I also hated when she joined that cult in the last season, too bad we never got to see it being taken down.
I think the problems with Nashville were that the writers were very “reactive” rather than actually planning their story arcs with purpose. The way that stories were just dropped, or changed direction suddenly, indicated to me that either there was interference in the writers room, or just no forward thinking at all. From Hayden’s comments that it sounds like the show was trying to be supportive of their actors – which is nice. But it doesn’t particularly contribute to cohesive storylines. The music still has a prominent place in my playlists though. That part was always golden.
I didn’t know the cult plot was created so she could go to rehab. I found weird that she barely showed up in that terrible season 6, now it all makes sense. I just wish the writers would have had a better plan to write Juliette out during her time in rehab, because that plot was truly awful.
I loved Nashville and enjoyed her on it. I feel bad about what she’s gone through. She is a talented actress and is very pretty. I hope she dos better going forward.
I loved her in Nashville and I still listen to a lot of the songs from the show. She is very talented. I hope she finds the peace and healing that she needs and will one day return to acting and singing.
My husband and I loved the Nashville series, it became our enjoyed quiet time at home. We loved Hayden’s role and were disappointed with her latter story lines, but they make sense now. From a family who have experienced depression and substance abuse I wish her all the very best, it is a long road to recovery, so it’s lovely to see her looking well and be able to talk so openly.
Some of her story lines must have been very hard to play when so close to the heart
I got chills reading this article. I was a fan of Nashville and watched every week from S2 up until the first half of the final season, and I knew something deeper was going on once that cult storyline was introduced. I’m glad to hear that she’s doing a lot better and actually sought out help for herself back then because we too often hear about similar stories not ending so well for other celebrities. I love Hayden as an actress and she seems like a sweet person, so I hope that her career can pick back up after Scream 6 releases next year, and I hope that she continues to have a great relationship with her child.