Hayden Panettiere cancels public appearance over emergency

Hayden Panettiere withdrew from a scheduled gig at a fan convention at the last minute, over what the Daily Mail has exclusively learned is a family emergency.

The 36-year-old was slated to appear this weekend at Creep I.E. Aftermath, which is being held in the Southern California town of Ontario.

However the organizers revealed Friday afternoon that the former child star had been forced to cancel, and that they had consequently secured a replacement.  

‘Hayden Panettiere has an emergency and will not be able to attend this weekend,’ they said: ‘we are looking forward to her appearing at an upcoming show.’

Panettiere’s representative told the Daily Mail: ‘Hayden cancelled her appearance due to a private family matter concerning the health of an elderly relative.’ 

Creep I.E. Aftermath has announced that Dominique Swain, who starred in Face/Off and as the тιтle character in the 1997 film of Lolita, is filling in for her.

Hayden Panettiere withdrew from a scheduled gig at a fan convention at the last minute over an ’emergency’ that remains unspecified; pictured November 2022

The development comes two months after Panettiere released her memoir This Is Me, in which she bared her soul on such subjects as her past addictions; pictured in May

Hours before Panettiere’s cancelation was announced, the convention posted to Instagram that Tori Spelling had also pulled out of the event because of an ’emergency,’ the exact nature of which was left undisclosed.

The Daily Mail has contacted a representative for Spelling for comment.

All of Hayden Panettiere’s explosive revelations from the ‘heartbreaking’ decision to give up custody of her daughter to revealing she was put in bed with a ‘very famous British singer songwriter’ when she was 18

Meanwhile Christina Ricci had to delay her appearance at the Creep IE Aftermath until next year because of a conflict with her filming schedule.

Mira Sorvino also had to change her convention schedule to Saturday and Sunday only to accommodate the shoot schedule of the upcoming sequel to her classic 1997 comedy Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, co-starring Lisa Kudrow.

The development comes two months after Panettiere released her memoir This Is Me, in which she bared her soul on her past addictions, the travails of child stardom and her turbulent romance with her abusive ex Brian Hickerson.

Her autobiography also details her fraught equation with her mother Lesley Vogel, who used to be her manager but from whom she is now estranged. 

In 2018, in order to devote herself to her recovery from her personal demons, Panettiere voluntarily gave up custody of her now 11-year-old daughter Kaya.

Kaya was handed over to the care of her father, Ukrainian boxing star Wladimir Klitschko, with whom Panettiere now shares an amicable co-parenting bond.

‘Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life,’ Panettiere wrote in her book: ‘and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion – including sadness, resentment, and anger – I’ve felt because of it.’

Her autobiography also details her fraught equation with her mother Lesley Vogel, used to be her manager but from whom she is now estranged; the pair are pictured in 2007

In 2018, Panettiere gave up custody of her now 11-year-old daughter Kaya to the child’s father, Ukrainian boxing star Wladimir Klitschko, with whom the actress is pictured in 2013

Panettiere struggled with alcohol and opiates until she finally achieved sobriety following an eight-month stint in rehab in 2020.

After contracting jaundice, she was informed by her doctor ‘that if I didn’t stop drinking, I’d be ᴅᴇᴀᴅ within five years,’ she wrote in the book. 

When she entered rehab, she suffered intense withdrawal to the point that on one occasion she ‘heard voices that were so terrifying I got on all fours and crawled to my bathroom, where I lay on the cool, clean tiles and waited for the panic to pᴀss.’

In 2024, fans theorized that she had fallen off the wagon when she slurred her words during an interview about her brother Jansen’s death the previous year. 

Her representatives defended her sobriety in a statement saying: ‘Speaking about her brother for the first time was very emotional for her – and it had been a long and exhausting day for her. She was not under the influence,’ via Page Six.

Jansen had been found ᴅᴇᴀᴅ aged 28 at his apartment in February 2023 of an undiagnosed enlarged heart and aortic valve complications. 

The book also covers her turbulent on-off relationship with her abusive ex Brian Hickerson, with whom she is pictured in Los Angeles in 2018

Panettiere first took up with Hickerson in 2018, when she was in the depths of her struggles with drink and opioids and had recently split from Klitschko. 

Over the course of their turbulent relationship Hickerson faced multiple domestic violence charges, and in 2021 he served 13 days in prison for injuring her. 

He announced in July 2022 that they had split, but from that November onwards they were glimpsed together repeatedly, igniting rumors of a reunion.

The pair were spotted together at LAX as recently as this March, two months prior to the release of her memoir, in which she offered a blistering account of their romance.

Shortly before publication, he publicly expressed ‘hope’ they might eventually marry, an idea she dismissed out of hand in a subsequent interview, via TMZ.