Hayden Panettiere’s former “Guiding Light” co-star Beth Chamberlin believed the actress would overcome the “troubled times” she faced and emerge as an even stronger performer before her sudden death at 36.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Chamberlin — who starred as Panettiere’s on-screen mom on the 90s soap opera — opened up about her “special bond” with the late child star and the resilience she saw in her through difficult times.
“When I would hear about some of the troubled times that she was going through, I would think to myself, ‘She’s gonna get through this, and watch out world,’” Chamberlin told Fox News Digital. “Because when she gets through this, you are going to see some work on screen. You’re going to see things like you’ve never seen. I know Viola Davis made a comment that she is waiting to see what Hayden was going to fully become. And I think that puts it best because I think, that’s how I was feeling too.”
The “Heroes” and “Nashville” star was found dead inside a Greenville, South Carolina residence on Aug. 16.
Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, and his brother, Zach, called 911 after finding the actress unresponsive, according to a police report obtained by Fox News Digital. Hickerson later gave authorities a bag containing medication Panettiere had allegedly been taking.
Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, publicly raised questions about Brian’s role in her daughter’s life and death.
“Although my daughter and I were estranged, it was not for lack of care or love,” she said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight. “It was due to the involvement of a toxic individual who I believe led to her death.”
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“Hayden was a beautiful and talented young woman who unfortunately became involved with the wrong person, and although her family tried to extricate him from her life, we were unable to be successful.”
Preliminary autopsy results found no signs of trauma that contributed to Panettiere’s death, the Greenville County Coroner’s Office confirmed to Fox News Digital. However, Panettiere’s death remains under investigation.
Fox News has learned the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has also been contacted and is assisting with the investigation.
For Chamberlin, processing Panettiere’s death has been particularly difficult because she remembers her as the extraordinarily talented young girl she worked alongside on “Guiding Light.”
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“She truly was just an amazing, amazing child actor,” Chamberlin said. “You’ve never seen anything like it, actually.”
“Acting requires a lot of work to create an emotional arc. Now in a soap opera, too, you have to remember everything’s done in one take. It’s a multi-camera shoot … So you’ve got to get it right. And she was able to do that. With multiple pages, day after day.”
Chamberlin says that while she has often discouraged children pursuing a career in acting, she strongly believed Panettiere was a special exception.
“I know there’s so many people that will say, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t put children in the business’ And I get that. And anybody that knows me, knows that when people in my life that have asked me, how about putting my kid in the businesses? I always say, ‘Don’t do it.’ I didn’t put my own kid in a business. But I’ve always maintained that Hayden was the exception to that. Because Hayden looked like she was in her element when she was there.”
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Chamberlin said she hopes Panettiere will be remembered for her “extraordinary talent.”
“I really want people to remember her for the extraordinary talent she was. Because she truly was,” she said. “As I’ve said before, I think she was the most talented child actor that ever walked on a set … She was doing this astounding stuff on a soap opera in one take. And she was maybe doing 20 pages or 30 pages, 40 pages worth of scenes a day. That’s a whole different animal. And so. That’s what I would, I really want people to remember that, because that deserves to be set aside and held up.”
