The lifelong family friend who was a “second mother” to Hayden Panettiere said that the tragic actress “never stood a chance” of escaping her demons after being raised in Hollywood.
Linsey Lonberg, who knew the actress since she was a toddler growing up in Rockland County, New York, suggested the actress’ weekend death was all too predictable given the depression and addiction she’d pinned on growing up as a child actor.
“She tried and tried and tried to get past her struggles but she was an actress.” Lonberg told the Daily Mail at a bar in Piermont, New York, where Panettiere’s father lives and where she was seen by locals just a month ago.
“She told me that when you go working on a set, all kinds of pills, liquor, all kinds of things are available where you can get anything you want,” Lonberg continued.
“This kid didn’t have a chance,” she said. “I don’t think she would have gone down the road she went down if it hadn’t been for Hollywood.”
Panettiere described Lonberg as her “second mother” in her harrowing autobiography, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” in which she also revealed that she was offered “happy pills” at an event when she was just 15.
She descended into serious addiction and checked into rehab in 2020 and spent eight months receiving treatment. She recalled that doctors told her she risked being dead within five years if she didn’t stop drinking.
A haunting interview also resurfaced Sunday in which Panettiere talked about being betrayed by a friend and sex trafficked to a “very famous man” on a yacht when she was an 18-year-old up-and-coming star.
Lonberg said she knew Panettiere since she was a toddler, and recalled her and her brother Jansen — who died at the age of 28 in February 2023 from an undiagnosed heart condition — visiting her house to play with her children and animals.
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She remains close with the actor’s father, Alan “Skip” Panettiere, who was just getting over his son’s death when he lost his daughter. Lonberg called him on Sunday night after news of her death broke.
“I can’t imagine losing a child, but for him to lose both of his children, I can’t imagine how difficult that must be for a parent. It’s just so devastating,” she said.
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