Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Already a member?
Log in
Hayden Panettiere’s ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko has filed a petition to serve as her estate’s temporary guardian to protect the assets of their daughter, Kaya.
Kaya, 11, is the sole beneficiary of the Heroes star’s estate following her death from an accidental overdose at age 36 on August 11.
Klitschko — a former heavyweight boxing champion — and Panettiere began dating in 2008, got engaged in 2013 and welcomed Kaya the following year. They split in 2018, with Klitschko later granted full custody of their daughter.
Klitschko’s petition, first obtained by TMZ Monday, says it is “urgent and essential” that he be granted the legal status of temporary guardian of his daughter’s estate.
“Without an immediate appointment for these purposes, there is a high probability that property belonging to Hayden’s Estate may be lost, damaged or dissipated before a duly appointed personal representative can be in place to protect it,” the filing says.
The filing emphasizes that his intention is solely to protect his daughter’s future assets until a permanent administrator can be put in place.
The petition claims that federal agents have taken Panettiere’s property in an investigation, and there is no authorized person to deal with them and ensure it is returned.
It continues to say that before her death, Panettiere and Klitschko hired security to protect her home because an unnamed person had gained unauthorized access. The petition says the same person is expected to continue trying to “misappropriate” property belonging to her estate.
“Given the high publicity of Hayden’s estate, a personal representative needs to be appointed immediately to safeguard and protect Hayden’s home and contents,” the filing adds.
Klitschko also “believes that non-family members previously connected to Hayden have accessed and destroyed Hayden’s emails.”
Klitschko claims in the filing that he was “informed” that Panettiere’s personal property, including jewelry, has “disappeared or remains unaccounted for.”
A hearing on the issue is scheduled for October 8.
In her memoir released earlier this year, Panettiere acknowledged being addicted to alcohol and having postpartum depression after her daughter’s birth.
She checked herself into rehab when Kaya was four months old; later, though, she started drinking again and also became dependent on prescription medication, while continuing to film her role as a country star in the TV show Nashville. In 2018, Klitschko sued Panettiere for full custody of their daughter, while he and Kaya were on a trip to his home city of Kyiv.
Rather than becoming embroiled in a drawn-out legal battle, she chose to sign the papers. It was, she later reflected, “the hardest thing I ever had to do. But I wanted to be a good mom to her – and sometimes that means letting them go.”
Kaya moved out to Ukraine permanently (Klitschko’s brother Vitali, also a former boxer, is the mayor of Kyiv, and the siblings have been prominent figures in the Ukrainian war effort).
Panettiere’s father told investigators that when she died, she had plans to visit her daughter in Ukraine days later.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press
