‘Most Heartbreaking Thing I’ve Ever Had To Do’: Hayden Panettiere Reveals The Painful Choice Of Relinquishing Custody Rights To Ex Wladimir Klitschko

Actress Hayden Panettiere opened up about her "heartbreaking" decision to relinquish custody of her daughter, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Hayden, 33, turned over her custody rights of her only child, daughter Kaya, 7, to Wladimir Klitschko, 46, while she was in the midst of battling an addiction issue.

She described the ordeal of signing papers to her ex-fiancé and former pro boxer as “very upsetting.”

“If he had … I would’ve said, ‘OK, that makes sense, I get it, I’ll come there to visit and stuff like that,” Hayden told Red Table Talk co-hosts Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield Norris, along with guest co-host Sharon Osbourne. People obtained a sneak peek of the upcoming Wednesday episode.

She described the process as the “most heartbreaking thing I've ever had to do in my life.”

Hayden explained she has been purging her past and working on a better version of herself following her addiction issue.

Banfield Norris asked Hayden to clarify her understanding of signing the custody papers, asking, “You thought this was an agreement that you came to that it was best that your daughter be with her dad?”

“At first it was not because it wasn't a discussion,” Hayden answered. “If [Klitschko] had 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 — which if I had probably had enough of a conversation I would've said okay that makes sense, I get it, I'll come there to visit and stuff like that.”

Hayden explained that the papers “were to give [Klitschko] full custody.”

“Because of the way that it was done, it was very upsetting,” Hayden shared with the Red Table hosts. “I mean, it was the worst signing those papers, the most heartbreaking thing I've ever, ever had to do in my life.”

The former Nashville star revealed in July 2022 that she had been battling an addiction to alcohol and opioid abuse.

“I was gonna go work on myself, I was gonna get better, and when I got better then things would change and she could come to me and I could have my time with her but that didn't happen,” Hayden shared.

In 2018, during the height of her addiction battle, Hayden made the tough decision to allow her daughter to live with her father in Ukraine while she worked on herself.

“It was the hardest thing I could do,” she said at the time. “But the best thing for my daughter was to make sure she was okay, take care of myself and make sure I could be a good mom to her. And sometimes that means letting go.”