Nearly a year before her untimely passing at the age of 36, Hayden Panettiere spoke fondly about her deep connection with Michelle Trachtenberg, her co-star in the movie “Ice Princess.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last September, the “Heroes” star shared that she had known Trachtenberg long before they appeared together in the 2005 Disney film. Sadly, Trachtenberg passed away in February 2025 at the age of 39.

“Actually, her grandmother lived across the street from my grandparents in Brooklyn. So I knew Michelle way before that,” Panettiere recalled.

“Yeah, like ‘Harriet the Spy’ days,” she added, referencing Trachtenberg’s 1996 breakout role.

Panettiere went on to describe how they not only shared careers in the same industry but also had the unique experience of growing up familiar with each other’s families due to their neighborhood connection.

“We would have block parties. So I have memories of her and I from long ago,” Panettiere shared.

In “Ice Princess,” Trachtenberg plays brainy high school student Casey Carlyle who uses physics to become a competitive figure skater, which puts her at odds with skater Gen Harwood, the daughter of Casey’s coach, Tina (Kim Cattrall).

However, Casey and Gen eventually form a close friendship.

“It was great to work with her,” Panettiere said of Trachtenberg. “It was great to work with Kim Cattrall who was in that, who is amazing, is phenomenal.”

She continued, “It was such a unique experience. I mean, we had to learn how to figure-skate in six weeks, which is no easy feat. But it was so much fun. We had a lot of fun and I’m very grateful that I have the memories that I have with her.”

Panettiere and Trachtenberg both rose to fame as child stars, having appeared on the soap operas “One Life to Live” and “All My Children,” respectively.

Trachtenberg, who was also famous for her roles in “Gossip Girl” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” died of complications from diabetes mellitus on Feb. 26, 2025.

Prior to her death, she had undergone a liver transplant and struggled with addiction.

Panettiere, meanwhile, died over the weekend after being found “unresponsive” and “in cardiac arrest” at an Airbnb rental inside the Judson Mill Lofts apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina on Sunday afternoon.

The 911 dispatch call exclusively obtained by Page Six revealed that authorities reported an “overdose” and that “CPR [was] in progress.”

Medics attempted to resuscitate Panettiere with advanced cardiac life support and chest compressions, but she was pronounced dead at 2:32 p.m.

Panettiere, who battled addiction and postpartum depression, was allegedly suffering from “really severe” back pain before her death.

After Panettiere’s passing, “Ice Princess” director Tim Fywell released an emotional statement honoring both stars of the film.

“In what was often a tough and technically complicated shoot, and my first Hollywood movie, they were delightful to work with and great to have around,” Fywell told Variety on Monday.

The filmmaker added, “I remember them both with huge affection, how they were 20 odd years ago, at that relatively uncomplicated time of their lives, two shining talents, gone far too soon.”

Earl Spencer has crafted a compelling memoir that delves into the life of his late sister, Princess Diana, and the challenging period following her untimely passing, as exclusively revealed by the Daily Mail.

Titled ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,’ this poignant work is slated for release next month and offers an intimate glimpse into his relationship with Diana, a story he has never fully shared until now.

The memoir is hailed as both ‘historic’ and ‘profoundly moving,’ and it promises to explore Diana’s early years, her troubled 15-year marriage to the former Prince of Wales, and the chaotic period following her tragic accident in Paris in August 1997.

Earl Spencer, now 62, announced this revealing project, noting that the upcoming 30th anniversary of Diana’s death has spurred renewed media interest, prompting numerous interview requests about her life.

He explained his motivation for writing: ‘I felt it was important to chronicle my own memories and perspectives, setting the record straight instead of contending with repeated misconceptions and inaccuracies that have gained traction over the years.’

Swan Song, which will be published around the world and translated into 12 languages, is expected to provide an unprecedented inside account of a seismic week during which the House of Windsor was rocked by a global wave of public grief and anger.

Earl Spencer famously delivered a raw and defiant eulogy during Diana’s funeral at Westminster Abbey, which was broadcast to an astonishing worldwide audience of 2.5billion.

During the powerful oration, he highlighted how his sister ‘needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic’.

He also pledged that Diana’s ‘blood family’ would protect Princes William and Harry ‘so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition, but can sing openly as you planned’.

His words so moved the huge crowds gathered outside that their spontaneous applause was eventually followed by clapping from the congregation inside the Abbey.

Earl Spencer today added: ‘The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral.

‘As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.

‘I hope this book will be of interest to the many who still cherish the memory of Diana when she was alive, and I would be delighted if those too young to remember her in her heyday feel – after reading this – that they “get” who she really was: a one-off, dynamic character, full of love, charisma and self-doubt, who gave life a hell of a go, and left the world a far better place, despite exiting the stage while still so young.’

In the days leading up to the funeral, a heated row broke out behind the scenes over the decision for William and Harry to walk in Diana’s funeral procession.

Writing in his controversial 2023 memoir Spare, Harry disclosed that his uncle objected vocally at the time, describing as a ‘barbarity’ the idea of having the boys, then aged 15 and 12, following the funeral cortege.

He also revealed that when an alternative plan was suggested of having William walk alone behind the coffin, Harry objected, saying he did not want his brother to undergo the ordeal on his own.

Earlier this year, Earl Spencer described how ‘fundamentally unhappy’ he becomes every year on the anniversary of his sister’s death and how he finds it hard when strangers tell him where they were when she died.

Reflecting on Diana’s ‘extraordinary’ legacy, he added: ‘It’s different things to different people, particularly to women of a similar age. They really invested their lives in hers.

‘Maybe they had an unhappy marriage, maybe they battled an eating disorder. There’s plenty of Diana to look into and take your bit out of – almost like a horoscope, you can make it make sense for you.’

Swan Song is due to be published in the UK by Penguin Michael Joseph, a division of Penguin Random House, on September 22.

The book’s striking cover features an elegant black-and-white photograph of Diana.

Publisher Daniel Bunyard today said: ‘This is a book of historic importance, telling as it does the story of one of the 20th century’s most iconic and culturally significant figures, but it is also utterly unique in being written by Earl Spencer, from a vantage point of such intimacy.

‘Charles Spencer is both a loving brother and an acclaimed memoirist as well as a celebrated historian, and all these facets are brought together in Swan Song.

‘It is extraordinarily moving, beautifully written and remarkably candid, in no small part due to Charles’s rare ability to access great emotional depth without sentimentality, honest observation without rancour, and warmth without gloss.

‘While these pages contain many revelations that will draw considerable attention, readers will find, for the first time, but also for all time, a fitting tribute to the beloved woman who was Princess Diana.’

Charles Spencer and Diana grew up at the idyllic Park House on Queen Elizabeth’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, until the family moved to Althorp in 1975 when Charles was 12.

Diana affectionately called her younger brother ‘Carlos’, while he would call her ‘Duch’ – short for duchess.

Their father, Viscount (‘Johnnie’) Spencer, had been equerry to both Queen Elizabeth and her father, George VI, while Diana’s mother, Frances, was the younger daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy.

Diana was the Spencers’ third daughter and not the longed-for son who would secure continuance of the title. When Charles was born three years after Diana, a fireworks display was held in celebration.

Frances left Johnnie, later the 8th Earl Spencer, for the wallpaper heir Peter Shand Kydd in 1967. In an acrimonious custody battle the following year, Frances was dubbed ‘a bolter’ and lost the care of Diana, Charles and their older sisters Jane and Sarah.

From the age of eight, Charles was sent to Maidwell Hall boarding school in Northamptonshire, where he suffered appalling physical and sexual abuse.

In an extract from his poignant 2024 memoir A Very Private School, serialised exclusively in The Mail on Sunday, he described how a predatory assistant matron – whom he called a ‘voracious paedophile’ – preyed on him and other boys, grooming and then abusing them in their dormitory beds.

Earl Spencer had a ringside seat during his sister’s marriage to the future King, their eventual bitter separation and, in 1996, their divorce.

In 2020 he revealed how rogue BBC reporter Martin Bashir spun a shocking web of deceit to obtain his 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, during which the princess famously declared ‘there are three of us in this marriage’ – referring to Camilla Parker Bowles.

Bashir showed the Earl forged bank statements to gain access to Diana and then tricked her by peddling a string of lies, including that Prince William’s watch had been bugged to record her conversations.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their children Archie and Lilibet reportedly visited the Althorp estate last month, where they are thought to have laid flowers on Diana’s grave.

The princess’s final resting place is on a tree-covered island in the middle of an ornamental lake called the Oval Lake.

Swan Song by Charles Spencer (Penguin Michael Joseph, £28). To order a copy for £23.80 go to www.mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937. Free UK delivery on orders over £25. Promotional price valid until 30/09/2026. 

OAKLAND, Calif. — The stage is set for opening arguments on Tuesday as a landmark legal battle begins for Meta Platforms in a federal court in California.

Prosecutors representing California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey aim to secure substantial financial penalties and implement operational changes at Facebook and Instagram. This lawsuit is part of a broader legal offensive, as 29 states took action against the tech giant in 2023, targeting issues of child safety and privacy. While these four states enter the courtroom now, the remaining 25 will follow. Meta is also grappling with several state-level lawsuits.

The case accuses Meta of fueling a youth mental health crisis through deliberate product features that encourage addictive behavior among young users. Further, it contends that Meta routinely gathers data on children below 13 years old without obtaining parental consent, violating federal privacy laws.

“We are embarking on what stands as the largest consumer protection lawsuit in U.S. history this week. We will demonstrate to the jury that Meta hid the known impacts of its platforms on young people for the sake of profit,” stated Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, emphasizing the stakes of the trial.

Meta, however, expresses confidence in its legal defense, stating it believes in the strength of its case.

“We are proud of our record in protecting teens on our platforms and the amount of effort that we’ve put into developing protections over the years, even before these cases were ever filed, and continuing to the present day. We look forward to showing the judge and the jury those facts in court,” the company said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland will oversee the proceedings, which are expected to last six to eight weeks, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives and former employees testifying. Gonzalez Rogers, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2011, has overseen a bevy of complex, high-profile cases involving Big Tech. These include Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and its founders as well as Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple over its app store.

The trial is the latest in an avalanche of lawsuits against Meta Platforms and other social media companies including Google’s YouTube, TikTok and Snap, over arguments that their platforms harm young people, illegally collect their data and are deliberately designed to addict them.

In a separate series of operations this past July, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in San Diego intercepted illegal drugs valued at over $67 million, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

These seizures were carried out by officers from the CBP’s San Diego Field Office, which spans seven border ports between California and Mexico. This initiative was part of the enforced border security measures by the Trump administration aimed at strengthening safety along the southern boundary.

“Day in and day out, our officers demonstrate unwavering dedication to safeguarding our communities and securing our borders,” remarked Sidney Aki, director of field operations for CBP San Diego. “The substantial number of narcotics seizures highlights their diligence, skill, and determination to prevent dangerous substances from entering the United States.”

Throughout the month of July, between the 1st and 31st, officers from the San Diego office managed to confiscate an impressive 8,359 pounds of narcotics during 144 different smuggling incidents.

MEXICAN NATIONAL FACES FEDERAL CHARGES AFTER CBP FINDS $238K IN FENTANYL INSIDE ELECTRIC MOPED

The hauls included 553 pounds of fentanyl, 36 pounds of heroin, 2,572 pounds of cocaine and 5,077 pounds of methamphetamine. In total, the drugs had an estimated street value of $67 million, DHS said.

In addition, earlier this month, a 22-year-old Mexican citizen was found with 16 pounds of fentanyl — with an estimated street value of nearly $240,000 — hidden inside an electric moped attempting to enter the United States through the San Ysidro Port of Entry, which separates San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico.

CBP recently announced that officers stopped a vehicle carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher tube and other weapons as it attempted to cross from Arizona into Mexico.

In addition to the weapon, authorities said they found four rifles, an Avtomat Kalashnikova AK-style pistol, 16 AK rifles, 24 rifle magazines, 16 rifle stocks and 20 pistol grips.

Sylvia Jefferies, who played Hayden Panettiere’s on-screen mother in “Nashville,” recently reflected on the struggles the late actress faced, stating her “demons” became overwhelmingly burdensome before her untimely passing.

Jefferies expressed her sorrow on Instagram, writing, “This news has hit me deeply. I’ve needed time today to process the reality that Hayden is no longer with us.”

In her heartfelt message, Jefferies candidly spoke of the challenges Panettiere presented, recalling, “Sometimes, being around Hayden was difficult; I once likened her to a whirlwind. Yet, she was our whirlwind,” reflecting on her vibrant and unpredictable nature.

She poetically described the actress, saying, “She was like the initial sunburst, the gentle mist, the escalating storm, encompassing everything around her, until the rain subsided, bringing back calm, the sunshine in her eyes, and the delightful giggle in her voice.”

The 57-year-old actress acknowledged that while Panettiere had a “remarkably promising future,” the internal battles she faced were sometimes insurmountable.

“I pause as I reflect on her, looking at photos, remembering scenes, listening to voicemails, and remembering the first time she called me ‘Mama’ while she shared stories of her youth. We seemed far apart, but we were very close in our hearts,” the “Walker Payne” actress penned.

Jefferies said she and the “Heroes” alum “reconnected” after the former read the latter’s new memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” earlier this year and had made plans to see each other.

This story is being updated…

Hints unearthed from a pair of mysterious messages might soon unlock the enigma surrounding Nancy Guthrie’s suspected kidnapping in Arizona. Retired investigator Lisa Miller from Colorado noted that the grammatical traits and sentence structures strongly indicate that a single individual likely authored both messages. Such a revelation could potentially spark the crucial tip that law enforcement officials have been eagerly anticipating.

Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie, the well-known co-host of “Today,” was reportedly snatched from her residence in northern Tucson. Surveillance footage from a doorbell camera, which has been recovered, shows a masked intruder appearing at her doorstep during the early morning hours of February 1.

Last month’s decision to make these messages public might do more than spark a long-lost memory, Miller suggested. It could also increase the pressure on the message’s author, potentially causing them to slip up and inadvertently reveal themselves to those in their proximity.

“For those involved, there’s a constant paranoia about being discovered,” Miller explained. “That anxiety induces what’s known as behavioral leakage, which is precisely what we are hoping for and what those around the suspect might notice.”

But the notes themselves may give the public something specific to look for.

“Think about if you’ve heard someone in your group, maybe outside your orbit that you just encounter that uses this strange language, or if you’re written a letter,” Miller said. “If you see something in their writing or in an email where they’re using these comma splicings, those are the things that are useful to ask people to look for.”

The comma splices — where two sentences are joined with a comma rather than separated by a period — are a signature detail in both notes, she added.

“We see it also again in the second note,” she said. “So it’s continuous between the two notes, which is one of the reasons why I believe this continuity more likely than not indicates this one author.”

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department released the notes in July, six months after Guthrie’s suspected abduction from her home in Tucson, Arizona. Her whereabouts remain unknown, and authorities said they are hoping that someone recognizes the sender’s “unique linguistic style.”

“These are characteristics, these are things that law enforcement can use to ask people, crowdsource for help in this case,” Miller said.

And the comma splices aren’t the only habits that caught her attention.

“We’re seeing also some open compounds through the notes,” she said. “We see ‘heart related,’ that should be hyphenated by most people when they write that. We see smartwatch written as two words. Most people write that as one. Floodlight, we see that written as words. So that is a continuity that we’re seeing between the two.”

She also said she doesn’t think the sender used AI to concoct the messages. There’s a typo, for example, and the sentences don’t have a smooth, AI-generated flow, she said.

Instead, the unusual language may reflect the writer’s unique speech and writing habits, Miller said.

“There’s something else, it’s called idiolect,” Miller explained. “Idiolect is our personal style of communication and it can be affected by many things. The region we grew up in, neighborhoods we live in, slang that we’ve adopted.”

The sender’s idiolect could be why they used the word “perished” rather than “died” and wrote that Guthrie had been “buried in nature,” Miller speculated.

“Perhaps this idiolect, this personalized language is something that they’ve said based on religious upbringing, based on books they’ve read, maybe ‘buried in nature’ is something they utilize,” she said.

Another possibility, she said, is that offenders typically try to minimize their wrongdoing.

“They blame others,” Miller said. “They blame, you know, the victim themselves. They distance themselves from that bad thing that they did.”

Miller also flagged the sender’s use of both a dollar sign and “USD” to specify the ransom amount, along with the way dates and times were written, as other notable quirks.

“I would bring people from the public that are looking at these notes to look at that also, cause that’s a distinction,” she said.

Authorities have not yet confirmed that the notes are authentic, but Guthrie’s daughter, “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, has said she believes they may be — and investigators haven’t ruled them out either.

The sum of all rewards in the case is over $1.2 million.

Anyone with information is asked to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI or, to remain anonymous, call 520-88-CRIME.

Hayden Panettiere, the troubled actress who passed away from a suspected overdose, was reportedly “struggling” and “really lonely” during the production of her last film, revealed her co-star Justin Chatwin.

Panettiere, who died just days shy of her 37th birthday, completed filming on the psychological thriller “Sleepwalker” in February. In this movie, she portrayed a distraught mother dealing with the traumatic loss of her daughter in a car accident.

Having relinquished custody of her own daughter, Panettiere’s role mirrored aspects of her personal life. She also depicted a victim of domestic abuse, an experience she endured during her tumultuous relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Brian Hickerson.

Chatwin, who portrayed Panettiere’s abusive husband in the film, shared with People magazine that they bonded well on set. “It was a fantastic shoot, but considering the theme of domestic abuse, it might have been too relatable for her, as she did bring it up,” he explained on Monday.

Chatwin, renowned for his role in “Shameless,” had known Panettiere prior to filming and observed that she “seemed different” during the making of what would eventually be her final movie. Her sudden demise from a suspected overdose this weekend marks the end of her tumultuous yet remarkable journey.

“I could tell she was struggling, and I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s this movie,” he said of likely troubles off the set.

“There’s a handful of women that I’ve worked with that I really liked, and I really loved working with her, but I also know that she was really lonely.”

Canadian-born Chatwin, 43, said Panettiere “was authentic… about her life and she opened up about her struggles with addiction” while on set of the movie, which was released in January, Chatwin said.

“She was delightful and super open and we had a great time together and I’m just saddened that another one got taken down,” Chatwin said.

The actress’ shocking death came just three months after she published her deeply candid memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” in which the former child star opened up about her harrowing battles with alcohol and opioid addiction, postpartum depression, domestic abuse and the pressures of growing up in Hollywood. Hickerson has also admitted being abusive toward her.

Brandon Auman, the movie’s writer and director, described Panettiere as a “bright, open, [and] numinous spirit.”

“She was open and honest about the last few years of her life and how it related to her character,” he told People. 

“I’m keeping those conversations private, but I was struck by how complex and deeply introspective she was. She lived a dozen lives in one short beautiful life. I’ll miss her forever.”

Panettiere, who shared daughter Kyla with ex-boxing champ Wladimir Klitschko, was found unresponsive by an unidentified acquaintance inside a Greenville, South Carolina, apartment on Sunday having suffered a cardiac arrest following a suspected overdose.

She flew out of Los Angeles with Hickerson the previous day — though it’s not clear if he placed the call.

Panettiere died five days before her 37th birthday.