Actress Hayden Panettiere has revealed the reason why she gave full custody of her daughter to her ex-fiancé.
This week, Hayden spoke out in a podcast, opening up about her personal life, sharing her reasons behind giving up her daughter and giving an insight about how their relationship is now.
The Nashville star shares an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, with her ex, Wladimir Klitschko, and when she was just two years old, Wladimir told Hayden that he felt that Kaya would be better off living with him full time.
RELATED: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s Custody Plan Revealed For Teen Daughters After Split
At the time, Hayden was ‘struggling with mental health, anxiety, and postpartum [depression]’. ‘Having to act my way through it and feeling like I completely lost myself,’ she said.
However, speaking to Jay Shetty on his On Purpose podcast, Hayden said that she did not react well to the idea of her daughter not living with her full-time.
‘The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be okay with it is heartbreaking,’ the mum said.
She told Shetty: ‘When that first happened, I did not have a good reaction to it. I went like ‘mother lion.’ I would have burned the world down for my child.’
‘So that was incredibly difficult. The fact that my child wasn’t going to be with me all day every day was just … you can’t put words to it.’
However, as her ex lived in ‘Europe’ she decided that it would be easier for their daughter to live there with him rather than having to travel from Ukraine back to the US to see her. At the time, Hayden says that she thought Kaya would return to live with her when she was ready, but after seeing the ‘beautiful’ life she had in Europe, she decided that wouldn’t be what was best for her.
‘By the time I finally got healthy, I felt like it would have been unfair and selfish of me to try to pull her out, away from this life that she had created.’
Gushing about her daughter and revealing that they now have a strong bond the Heroes actor said: ‘She’s an incredible little girl. She’s an incredible little girl, so happy and speaks five languages and rides her horses and knows that she’s got two parents that love her.’
‘And I know in my heart that she feels supported.’
Hayden says that she keeps her relationship with her daughter strong by visiting her as often as she can and they also FaceTime. ‘We have a really intense, incredible bond, and I’m very grateful for that. She in no way feels abandoned,’ she said.
Hayden and Wladimir began their relationship in 2009 before briefly splitting in 2011 and then announcing their engagement in 2013. They separated for good in 2018.
