Hayden Panettiere’s final book signing showed slurred speech and tears before her death

During a May 26 event at Los Angeles’s Harmony Gold Theater, Hayden Panettiere’s delivery was at times slow and slurred, and she broke down while discussing the painful chapters of her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning.” Organizers repeatedly asked the crowd not to record, even using a megaphone to halt a fan’s attempt to film her. A source noted she had seemed tired earlier in the year and sometimes took medication for anxiety, which can impact speech.

The memoir details her childhood stardom, addiction, postpartum depression, abusive relationships, and the 2023 death of her brother Jansen. Panettiere was found unresponsive in Greenville, South Carolina, where police and emergency crews responded to a cardiac-arrest call and later pronounced her dead; a preliminary probe found no foul play. Her father Skip announced her passing, and she is survived by her daughter Kaya and her parents.