Hayden Panettiere says the storylines of 'Nashville' reflected her life
Hayden Panettiere.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesHayden Panettiere talks about how her character plays in the CMT series Nashville reflected her own personal life.
“From the start it was like dating a football player, [and then my character] Juliette is dating a football player,” said Panettiere, 34, who dated an NFL star Scotty McKnight from 2011 to 2012, said during an interview on Thursday, January 25 with The messenger.
She continued: “And then they turned her into an alcoholic. Then they turned to her and left her daughter behind… and it was very clear… that they weren't doing their homework. They didn't create new storylines. They just looked at my life and said, 'Oh, let's just take what she's going through and put our own spin on it.' And then, ta-da! It's over and done with.”
Panettiere, who played country pop singer Juliette Barnes Nashville from 2012 to 2018, she has been outspoken about her past struggles with opioid and alcohol addiction. In 2018, her daughter, Kaya, went to live with her father, Panettiere's ex, in Ukraine Wladimir Klitschkowhile the actress worked on her sobriety.
Hayden Panettiere has had quite a career – and her personal life has been just as fascinating. The Golden Globe-nominated actress started modeling when she was five months old and appeared in her first commercial when she was 11 months old. Her big break came in 1994 when she started playing Sarah Roberts in One Life to Live at […]
The similarities between Panettiere's personal life and the plot of Nashville was “very traumatizing,” she said. “It felt like I was playing my own life.”
The Scream VI The star also recalled feeling “very, very alone” while filming the show on location in the title city.
“My family didn't come to visit very often. And the team of people I was working with at the time were not the best influences on me. And these people – some of whom had represented me since I was 13 – were the kind [that] when they said, 'Jump!', I jumped,” Panettiere said. “If they said, 'Wear this,' I wore that. [It] used to be [to] the point where I never trusted my own opinion. That's why I made a lot of mistakes.”
After Nashville ended, Panettiere realized that some people in her corner didn't have the purest intentions.
Rollercoaster romance. Hayden Panettiere and Brian Hickerson's relationship has been marred by legal issues since the couple was first linked in August 2018. The Nashville alum moved on with Hickerson following her split from fiancé Wladimir Klitschko. Panettiere and the former professional boxer started dating in 2009. The couple briefly separated in 2011 but became engaged […]
“People aren't trying to protect me. They're trying to protect themselves,” she explained. “They are material people that I have trained most of my life to trust, listen to and take advice from. It was terrifying to finally make that transition.”
Despite the ups and downs she endured in the public eye, Panettiere persevered and got sober in 2021. During a September 2022 appearance on Red Table Talkshe opened up about feeling “terribly guilty” when her daughter went to live abroad with Klitschko, 47, for the first time.
“I knew the most selfless thing I could do was make that hard decision and just try to work on myself,” she said. “It was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever had to do in my life.”
These days, co-parenting with Klitschko is still “very difficult with the time changes,” Panettiere told The Messenger. However, she and her ex are in a good place.
“[Kaya] am I. Vlad laughs, and I think it makes Vlad very happy that I'm there a little bit. There is so much love and respect between us,” Panettiere said. “He has a helicopter and he tries to fly helicopters, so while he has her in the back he will send me videos of her passing out listening to the Nashville soundtrack.”