‘This kid didn’t have a chance’: Hayden Panettiere’s family friend speaks out after her death

The actor Hayden Panettiere sadly died on 16th August 2026, aged 36. Hayden’s family friend has spoken out about her death, and her struggles with a career in Hollywood.

Lynsey Lonberg is a close friend of the Panettiere family, who knew Hayden since she was a toddler. In Hayden’s autobiography This Is Me: A Reckoning, she called Lynsey her “second mother”.

Lynsey spoke about Hayden’s death to the Daily Mail: “She tried and tried and tried to get past her struggles. but she was an actress. She told me that when you go working on a set, all kinds of pills, liquor, all kinds of things are available where you can get anything you want.

“This kid didn’t have a chance. I don’t think she would have gone down the road she went down if it hadn’t been for Hollywood.

“She did the best she could for her daughter. It was impossible for her to keep up what she was doing as an actress and trying to take care of her daughter. She was trying to overcome the problems she had with drugs.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Hayden was open about her experiences with addiction. She told People in 2022: “As I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn’t live without.” She went to rehab in 2020 for eight months of treatment.

Lynsey also addressed Hayden’s difficulties with her mental health. “When she had her child,” Lynsey continued, “she had a very difficult delivery, and really hard postpartum – not a week of being depressed. It went on for a very long time.

“It took her a long time to get herself back together. I think working  organised things for her. She was a hard worker, focused.”

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Featured images via @haydenpanettiere/Instagram