Because having been in show business since her start as a baby model at 8 months old, Panettiere knows all too well the stresses of the spotlight. She recalled how, as a child actress, she thought it would be the work that was hard, but really it was going back to school feeling out of the loop and removed from her peers.
And she did face some bullying, which she dealt with in an unusual fashion: Kids would pass her mean notes, and she didn’t throw them away. Instead, she stashed them under her mattress. And when curiosity kicked in and she read them, she didn’t understand why they’d write such nasty stuff.
“It’s so confusing what girls come up with,” Panettiere said. “It was hard to be not included.”
Asked if her own school experience influenced what she was teaching her daughter about being her best self, she replied, “Absolutely.”
But while Kaya is happy as a budding equestrienne, and mother and daughter love riding and swimming together whenever they can (Klitschko has had full custody since 2018 and lives overseas), acting and delving into new characters is also Panettiere’s happy place.
