Hayden Panettiere’s last interview before her death: ‘a lot more life to live’, months later she was found unresponsive and soon passed away; police close investigation

Hayden Panettiere spoke about leaving years of pain behind and looking forward to new possibilities in a podcast interview months before her death at 36. “I feel like I have a lot more life to live,” the actress told Jay Shetty in May while discussing her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning. The interview was published on Jay Shetty Podcast YouTube channel on May 11, 2026, but the exact date of the recording is unknown.

She expressed, 'I finally feel like I have shaken off all of this darkness and this negativity. And that means I’ve closed one door and another door is opened, and I can feel it opened, and I can feel all the possibilities, all the exciting possibilities.''

Panettiere’s final Instagram post

Her last post on Instagram was a photo with photographer Randall Slavin and she wrote in the caption, 'Good times and good friends.’

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A post shared by Hayden Panettiere (@haydenpanettiere)

Before that, she also talked about his brother with Jay Shetty on his podcast. As she explained how close they were to each other as siblings, she added, ‘There’s nothing in my life that feels like losing my other half.’

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Police close investigation

She was found at an Airbnb in Greenville, SC, days before her 37th birthday and later pronounced dead on August 16.

The Greenville County Coroner’s office previously classified her death as an accident on September 22. They closed the investigation. Police confirmed, according to People it happened because of toxic effects of fentanyl, 4-ANPP, Alprazolam, Methocarbamol and Quetiapine.

Hayden Panettiere’s struggles with addiction

After the birth of her daughter, Kaya, in 2014, she experienced postpartum depression while also battling alcohol addiction.

“I was doing anything to make me feel happy for a moment. Then I’d feel worse than I did before,” she told People.

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A post shared by Hayden Panettiere (@haydenpanettiere)

The actress had also lost custody of her daughter. She also dealt with the loss of the death of her brother as she struggled with addiction and postpartum depression.

Her book, This Is Me: A Reckoning, was released in May 2026. It also made it’s place in the New York bestseller list. It explored her experience as a child actor, her struggles with addiction and depression, difficult relationships and the pressures of growing up in Hollywood.