Hayden Panettiere Was Warned by Doctor She'd Be 'Dead Within 5 Years' If She Didn't Stop Drinking — Years Before Fatal 'Overdose' at Age 36

Hayden Panettiere received a stern warning from doctors about her drinking habits six years before she died from an apparent overdose.

Panettiere, 36, opened up about her struggles with alcoholism and depression in her 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, revealing she often used substances as a coping mechanism.

"Alcohol let me say ‘F--- it, I'll deal with everything later,' and within thirty seconds, I was in the zone,” she explained. “It was like coming up for air and breathing again."

The actress revealed that she entered a rehabilitation facility in 2021 for eight months and recalled the symptoms of withdrawal as painful and challenging.

"As my nervous system tried to regulate itself without the depressant effects of alcohol, it went into overdrive, and my whole body shook,” she remembered. “I couldn't sleep, and my head pounded like it was pressing against my skull.”

“At least my eyes aren't yellow, I told myself,” the author added. “A doctor told me that if I didn't stop drinking, I'd be dead within five years.”

The Nashville star called her bouts with alcohol the "f--- it zone," where she could more easily cope with missing her daughter, Kaya, who lives in the Ukraine, her lapsed career and abuse from her on-off partner Brian Hickerson.

Hickerson served 45 days in prison in 2020 for domestic abuse charges against Panettiere. The actress was traveling from Los Angeles, Calif., with Hickerson in the days before her death.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again: addicts aren't patient,” Panettiere continued. “When we're shaking, nauseated, anxious, lonely, or depressed, we need instant relief that sends us into that pain-free place called denial."

In Panettiere's words, alcohol allowed her to "forget everything" and numb the pain instead of facing her problems head-on.

Once she got past withdrawal symptoms, Panettiere's life began to seem less and less daunting.

"Two weeks in, I started to feel calm,” she reflected on finally feeling physically and emotionally safe within herself. “I liked myself. What a revelation.”

"Joy was a million times better than any drug," the Heroes star added after months of treatment.

The groundbreaking look inside Panettiere's troubled personal life was released in May 2026. Her family announced her death just three months later.

"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," her father said in a statement to ABC News. "She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her – and to the millions who watched her on screen."

Police said the star was found "unresponsive" after a friend called 911 on the afternoon of Sunday, August 16, in Greenville, S.C. No foul play was detected, officials reported.

According to People, first responders discussed an "apparent overdose" and "cardiac arrest" in dispatch audio around the time of her death.