In an unexpected turn of events, Hayden Panettiere has pulled out of her scheduled appearance at a fan convention, a decision prompted by a pressing family emergency, according to exclusive information obtained by the Daily Mail.
The 36-year-old actress was set to make an appearance at Creep I.E. Aftermath, a popular event hosted in Ontario, the charming town in Southern California.
On Friday afternoon, the event organizers announced that the former child star could not attend, citing unforeseen circumstances. To accommodate fans, they quickly arranged for a replacement guest to step in.
‘Hayden Panettiere has an emergency and will not be able to attend this weekend,’ stated the organizers, expressing their anticipation of her participation in future events.
A representative for Panettiere informed the Daily Mail that her decision was influenced by a private family issue related to the health of an elderly relative, necessitating her priority shift.
Creep I.E. Aftermath has announced that Dominique Swain, who starred in Face/Off and as the title character in the 1997 film of Lolita, is filling in for her.
Hayden Panettiere withdrew from a scheduled gig at a fan convention at the last minute over an ’emergency’ that remains unspecified; pictured November 2022
The development comes two months after Panettiere released her memoir This Is Me, in which she bared her soul on such subjects as her past addictions; pictured in May
The development comes two months after Panettiere released her memoir This Is Me, in which she bared her soul on her past addictions, the travails of child stardom and her turbulent romance with her abusive ex Brian Hickerson.
Her autobiography also details her fraught equation with her mother Lesley Vogel, who used to be her manager but from whom she is now estranged.
In 2018, in order to devote herself to her recovery from her personal demons, Panettiere voluntarily gave up custody of her now 11-year-old daughter Kaya.
Kaya was handed over to the care of her father, Ukrainian boxing star Wladimir Klitschko, with whom Panettiere now shares an amicable co-parenting bond.
‘Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life,’ Panettiere wrote in her book: ‘and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion – including sadness, resentment, and anger – I’ve felt because of it.’
Panettiere struggled with alcohol and opiates until she finally achieved sobriety following an eight-month stint in rehab in 2020.
After contracting jaundice, she was informed by her doctor ‘that if I didn’t stop drinking, I’d be dead within five years,’ she wrote in the book.
When she entered rehab, she suffered intense withdrawal to the point that on one occasion she ‘heard voices that were so terrifying I got on all fours and crawled to my bathroom, where I lay on the cool, clean tiles and waited for the panic to pass.’
Her autobiography also details her fraught equation with her mother Lesley Vogel, used to be her manager but from whom she is now estranged; the pair are pictured in 2007
In 2018, Panettiere gave up custody of her now 11-year-old daughter Kaya to the child’s father, Ukrainian boxing star Wladimir Klitschko, with whom the actress is pictured in 2013
The book also covers her turbulent on-off relationship with her abusive ex Brian Hickerson, with whom she is pictured in Los Angeles in 2018
In 2024, fans theorized that she had fallen off the wagon when she slurred her words during an interview about her brother Jansen’s death the previous year.
Her representatives defended her sobriety in a statement saying: ‘Speaking about her brother for the first time was very emotional for her – and it had been a long and exhausting day for her. She was not under the influence,’ via Page Six.
Jansen had been found dead aged 28 at his apartment in February 2023 of an undiagnosed enlarged heart and aortic valve complications.
Panettiere first took up with Hickerson in 2018, when she was in the depths of her struggles with drink and opioids and had recently split from Klitschko.
Over the course of their turbulent relationship Hickerson faced multiple domestic violence charges, and in 2021 he served 13 days in prison for injuring her.
He announced in July 2022 that they had split, but from that November onwards they were glimpsed together repeatedly, igniting rumors of a reunion.
The pair were spotted together at LAX as recently as this March, two months prior to the release of her memoir, in which she offered a blistering account of their romance.
Shortly before publication, he publicly expressed ‘hope’ they might eventually marry, an idea she dismissed out of hand in a subsequent interview, via TMZ.