Ahead of tomorrow’s episode of Red Table Talk, the Facebook Watch series is previewing its emotional conversation with guest Hayden Panettiere. In today’s sneak peek, Panettiere gets vulnerable with Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield Norris and guest host Kelly Osbourne while detailing the difficult process of giving up custody of her daughter, Kaya, to her ex, Wladimir Klitschko.
Panettiere told People magazine in July that she sent Kaya to live with Klitschko in 2018, calling the choice “the hardest thing I ever had to do,” and adding, “But I wanted to be a good mom to her — and sometimes that means letting them go.”
On the latest Red Table Talk, Banfield Norris begins the conversation by saying to Panettiere, “You thought this was an agreement that you came to that you felt it was best that your daughter be with her dad.”
Panettiere clarifies, “At first it was not because it wasn’t a discussion. If he had come to me and said, ‘I think because of where you’re at right now and the struggles that you’re having it would be good for her to be over here with me for a while.’ To which I probably, if I had had enough of a conversation, would’ve said, ‘Okay that makes sense, I get it, I’ll come there to visit and stuff like that.’
“Because of the way that it was done, it was very upsetting. I mean, it was the worst,” she continues. “Signing those papers was like the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever, ever had to do in my life … the papers were to give [Klitschko] full custody.”
Panettiere says, “I was gonna go work on myself and 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,” she adds.
The Heroes actress has been candid about her struggles with substance abuse and postpartum depression, telling People she felt a “gray color in my life” after giving birth and fell into a “cycle of self-destruction” abusing alcohol and opiates.
Since entering treatment and undergoing therapy, Panettiere is now sober and has reconnected with her daughter, who lives abroad.
“She has a beautiful life,” Panettiere told People in July. “I was just with her. She’s just an amazing child. She’s smart and she’s funny and for whatever reason, she still loves me.”
Red Table Talk airs Wednesdays at 12 p.m ET on Facebook Watch. See the full clip from tomorrow’s episode in the video above.