Add Page Six on Google Hayden Panettiere had been looking forward to spending her 37th birthday with her daughter, Kaya, before her untimely death on Sunday.
“She was planning on spending the week of her birthday visiting her daughter in Germany,” a source close to the “Nashville” alum told Page Six exclusively. “She was so excited to see her and was telling everyone how much she was looking forward to spending time with her.”
Page Six previously reported that the “Heroes” star had been making plans to see Kaya, 11, and can now reveal the trip was intended to coincide with her birthday week.
Panettiere’s hairstylist and close friend Erick Orellana told Page Six earlier this week that she had spoken excitedly about wanting to take a vacation and visit her daughter.
“I last saw her a few months ago,” Orellana said.
“She was talking about how she wanted to take a vacation, and that she wanted to go and see her daughter. Her daughter was always her absolute priority. She loved her so much.”
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Orellana, who worked with Panettiere for three years, said the actress frequently showed him photos of Kaya and shared stories about her.
“Her daughter was the absolute light of her life,” he told us. “She lit up when she spoke about her. Everything she did revolved around her.”
Kaya has lived in Ukraine with her father, who is Panettiere’s ex-fiancé, Wladimir Klitschko, since 2018, when the “Scream 4” star gave up custody amid her battle with postpartum depression and addiction.
The Golden Globe nominee had maintained an amicable relationship with Klitschko, whom she dated from 2009 to 2018. She also recently gushed over her and Kaya’s “really intense, incredible bond” leading up to her death.
Around the same time her relationship with Klitschko ended, Panettiere was romantically linked with Brian Hickerson in 2018.
Panettiere died Sunday in Greenville, South Carolina, her family confirmed. She was 36.
Police and emergency personnel responded shortly before 2 p.m. to a report of an unresponsive woman and attempted to provide medical assistance before Panettiere was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities said Monday that her death remains under investigation by the Greenville Police Department and Greenville County Coroner’s Office.
A preliminary investigation found no signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.
A cause of death has not been officially determined. Page Six reported the autopsy showed the actress had no “signs of trauma” at the time of death.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement announcing her death. “She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen.”
Her father asked for privacy as the family processes the “unimaginable loss.”
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