Hayden Panettiere is ready to reveal why she signed over custody of her 7-year-old daughter Kaya.
The "Scream" actress — who has previously been about her struggles with opioid and alcohol addiction—recently shared that there initially "wasn't a discussion" between her and her Ukraine-based ex Wladimir Klitschko regarding him getting full custody in 2018.
"If he'd come to me and said, ‘I think because of where you're at right now and your struggles that you're having it would be good for her to be over here with me for a while,' to which if I had probably had enough of a conversation, I would've said, ‘OK, that makes sense,'" Panettiere explained on a recent episode of "Red Table Talk." "I get it. I'll come there to visit and stuff like that."
But that's not how it went down. "Because of the way that it was done, it was very upsetting," she added. "I mean, it was the worst signing those papers, the most heartbreaking thing I've ever, ever had to do in my life."
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Panettiere clarified to hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Norris and guest host Kelly Osbourne that the "papers were to give him full custody."
The plan, she continued, was she "was gonna go work on myself, I was gonna get better and when I got better then things could change and she could come to me, and I could have my time with her but that didn't happen."
After Panettiere and Klitschko split in 2018, the "Nashville" actress made the tough decision to have Kaya live with her father in Ukraine as she worked on recovering from postpartum depression and alcohol and drug addiction.
"It was the hardest thing I could do," she told "People" in July 2022. "But the best thing for my daughter was to make sure she was OK, take care of myself and make sure I could be a good mom to her. And sometimes that means letting go."
Panettiere ultimately entered rehab for eight months and has since completed trauma therapy and inpatient treatment. She is now planning to make her acting comeback as she was recently signed by talent agency APA and just finished filming "Scream 6," in which she reprises her role as Kirby Reed.
"This hasn't been easy and there were a lot of ups and downs," Panettiere told "People." "But I don't regret even the ugliest things that have happened to me. I feel incredibly accomplished. And I feel like I have a second chance."
