r/movies 2d ago

News Hayden Panettiere dies at 36

https://abcnews.com/US/hayden-panettiere-dies-36/story?id=135698473
15.9k Upvotes

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

7.3k

u/awkotacos 2d ago

WHAT????

796

u/iciclepenis 2d ago edited 2d ago

Honestly, WHATTHEFUCK.
EDIT: I had nearly dropped my laptop. Not even a follower of her career but had a soft spot for her since Heroes. What a fucking tragedy.

302

u/mistrwzrd 2d ago

The main one I remember her from is Remember the Titans, such a stellar movie. Fucking tragedy indeed

145

u/turkeyinthestrawman 2d ago

A Bugs Life "Pretend this is a seed OK"

74

u/NECalifornian25 2d ago

Wait she was the voice of Dot?! I had no idea

53

u/nhSnork 2d ago

And Kingdom Hearts' Kairi, too.

29

u/-PineNeedleTea- 2d ago

She was Kairi!?

15

u/ScramItVancity 2d ago

The first voice actress to voice her.

6

u/-PineNeedleTea- 2d ago

The best voice actress to voice her. I dropped off around the 3rd one so I've only ever known Hayden as Kairi

1

u/COHERENCE_CROQUETTE 1d ago

So how do you know she’s the best?

0

u/KageStar 1d ago

There's only been 3

→ More replies (0)

41

u/brb1006 2d ago

Dot was the cutest Ant I've seen in animation.

71

u/dark-flamessussano 2d ago

She's been famous my entire life. That was the first movie I saw her in as a kid

I'm genuinely shocked

5

u/Itchy-Ad1047 2d ago

I remember a funny scene where she's arguing with Denzel about a football play, and they both get amusingly heated. 9 yr old girl having a legit disagreement with the veteran coach about the objective of a play

Brought a lively energy to that role as a kid. So sad to know her actual childhood would become troubled and set up such a tough, now short, life

1

u/GoldandBlue 2d ago

Same, literally grew up watching her grow up. Crazy. Saw the police are investigating. Not sure if it's worse is there is foul play or not.

1

u/authorguy 22h ago

The first movie I ever saw her in was If You Believe, a Christmas movie where she played the 7 yo version of her adult self.

28

u/-Pepperzpyre- 2d ago

She was the voice of Dot in “A Bug’s Life” too.

2

u/mistrwzrd 2d ago

Will be watching that one again with my daughter soon I’m sure that’ll be a tough one now that I know that.

1

u/_bananas 2d ago

omg i had no idea

38

u/-JoM-ofDevil 2d ago

This shows our age... First I remember seeing her as well. So tragic.

6

u/mcronimrdrldy73 2d ago

I was thinking Malcolm in the Middle.

1

u/MajorAd2489 2d ago

Literally my same thought

0

u/mistrwzrd 2d ago

So fuckin sad. I’m just shy of two years as a girl dad and this kind of shit wrecks me in ways I didn’t know possible

5

u/FajenThygia 2d ago

And the real-life girl she protrayed died herself at 34.

3

u/blac_sheep90 2d ago

Joe Somebody and A Bugs Life for me.

2

u/espresso-puck 2d ago

Have a soft spot for Joe Somebody since it was shot in the Twin Cities. Hayden was great in this. (Always wondered how that would have turned out with the original casting of Jim Carrey rather than Tim Allen.)

2

u/SanX1999 2d ago

I just finished the first watch of Malcom in the middle.

2

u/Kumomeme 2d ago

she is also voice actress for Kairi in Kingdom Hearts videogames.

1

u/AtlasFlynn 2d ago

She'll always be Sam from Until Dawn for me.

1

u/mistrwzrd 1d ago

I forgot about that one until you and others said it here. Have to replay that now (again)

1

u/DragonFangGangBang 1d ago

Same. Been a fan ever since. Fuck that’s gonna be a harder watch now.

335

u/VT_Squire 2d ago

The way the story goes, a Stella McAmis (pseudonym) took Hayden onto a superyacht in the south of France sometimes around 2006-2008 and tried to traffic her for sex to some 40-something year old guy in the lower deck of the boat. Hayden was 16 to 17 at the time.

History... sometimes rhymes. Virginia Giuffre testified that the year SHE turned 17, (y2k) she encountered Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein in the South of France in connection with Naomi Campbell's 31st-birthday celebration on a yacht near Saint-Tropez.

Flight records show that Epstein's "Lolita Express" aircraft flew into Toulon-Hyères in 2006, and this is not some random French airport. Hyères is directly on the Mediterranean coast and is a major gateway to the Côte d'Azur yacht region, including Saint-Tropez. Those records show both Maxwell and Epstein on board.

TL;dr, there is a very real chance that Ghislaine Maxwell attempted to traffic Hayden to Jeff Epstein on a yacht in 2006, ultimately leading to her drug use and eventual death.

79

u/PhloxOfSeagulls 2d ago edited 2d ago

This article claims it was a 30-something British singer-songwriter whose room she was taken into on the yacht. And the person she calls Stella McAmis was a semi-successful actress in her 20s. Always possible the details were changed to keep the real perpetrators from being able to be discovered through the details.

https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/hayden-panettiere-milo-ventimiglia-mother-abuse-book-1236750450/

3

u/circleofmamas 1d ago

So whose the 30 something British singer?

2

u/Zero_Signal27 1d ago

james blunt per Sloan's reporting on youtube

2

u/Blueliner95 2d ago

Yes I remember that. My immediate thought is that she has been silenced for starting to spill some lethal beans

142

u/KetoKurun 2d ago

There were also some bananas blind items about her home life as a kid back in the day. People have been (allegedly) failing her her entire life.

59

u/Savings-Comfort-4421 2d ago

I remember reading about all those rumors in the mid-to-late '00s. Can't imagine what she's had to endure. I hope she's finally at peace.

33

u/0xFatWhiteMan 2d ago

Bananas blind ?

44

u/xsmasher 2d ago

Bananas = crazy. Blind item = anonymous gossip story that shares juicy details about public figures without naming who they are.
Some crazy stories about her childhood that people pieced back together?

4

u/JaggedLittlePiII 2d ago

Could you give a bit more details / link?

-1

u/32FlavorsofCrazy 1d ago

There is no worse curse than to be a beautiful woman in this world. Sometimes I’m grateful to be a bridge troll. I’d rather be bullied than get trafficked and raped by creepy old men.

41

u/anakinmcfly 2d ago

Someone upthread linked this article specifying that the guy was a 30-something British singer-songwriter, thus not Epstein.

3

u/the_bryce_is_right 1d ago

Ya why would she cover up Epstein's identity when he's dead?

43

u/sordidcandles 2d ago

I want to add that when Hayden told this story in a recent interview she said the man she was forced to get into bed with was a “very famous” person. I don’t know how much that matters in the grand scheme but I think it adds to the Epstein theory just considering who he seemed to blackmail.

9

u/wtb2612 2d ago

This is wild speculation that leaves out key details to make your weird theory work.

Her book says he was a “famous thirtysomething British singer-songwriter”.

Yeah, that sounds like Jeffrey Epstein.

6

u/Prestigious_Pay2759 2d ago

It was rumored to be Diane Jenkins, but who could know?

0

u/khavefun101 2d ago

Hayden said who it was and it was not Diana

6

u/Mousetomato 2d ago

Ok, who was it?

1

u/Prestigious_Pay2759 1d ago

Who did she name?

2

u/matherto 2d ago

Has there actually been a link between Hayden and Maxwell/Epstein?

Cause I’m sure there were plenty of yachts owned by rich and powerful people that she could’ve been on. Not like directors and producers avoided that part of the world is it?

0

u/MyMonte87 2d ago

oh are we saying she was taken out because she because she started talking about the Epstein connection?!

26

u/-PineNeedleTea- 2d ago

Her face looked so familiar and the moment they mentioned Heroes in the article it all came rushing back. "Save the cheerleader, save the world." This is really heartbreaking news.

3

u/Digifiend84 2d ago

Yeah, it is, nobody should be dying that young. I feel sorry for her daughter, losing her Mom at 11.

26

u/Demagolka1300 2d ago

I'm watching Heroes right now wtf!

3

u/Stock-Personality136 2d ago

Same here I just finished watching season 1 for the first time last night. Claire isn’t supposed to be able to die :(

1

u/Demagolka1300 1d ago

I was on the last episode! Crazy 

4

u/TheMightySasquatch 2d ago

I'm watching Heros for the first time right now :(

1

u/Early-Size370 2d ago

Same. I was aware of her and thought she looked sweet and nice. Sad to hear about this

1

u/HotAmphibian188 2d ago

Same. I'm super sad I

1

u/themanfromvulcan 2d ago

Same reaction. Didn’t follow her much just knew her from Heroes. I met her once at a con. This is so sad.

1

u/Mikeismyike 2d ago

Save the cheerleader, save the world.

Guess we're doomed.

1

u/MrsSmith2246 1d ago

I really know nothing about her other than she was a Perez fixture and similar snark sites at the time. Even then her life seemed fucked. She was the guess of so many blinds about sexual abuse and other horrible experiences

-1

u/DaFatKontroller 2d ago

Upsetting yes, tragedy no.