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Hayden Panettiere opens up for the first time about her secret addiction to opioids and alcohol … saying it had a huge impact on her life and career.
The “Nashville” star says in an interview with “Good Morning America” that she struggled with substance abuse as well as a battle with postpartum depression after giving birth to her 7-year-old daughter, Kaya, saying, “I was on top of the world and I ruined it.”
Hayden says that at one point her alcohol addiction got so bad that she was hospitalized suffering from jaundice and doctors warned that her liver was going to fail. Now, she says, trauma therapy and inpatient treatment over the past year has brought her to a place of peace … but it’s taken a lot of work.
As a childhood star, she says someone on her team gave her “happy pills” before appearing on red carpets, “They had to make me tune up during interviews. I had no idea it wasn’t the right thing or what a door it would open for me when it came to my addiction.”
She says that while the addiction worsened, she had one spot of sobriety, “My saving grace was that I couldn’t be messy while I was on set and working… But things kept spiraling out of control [off set]. And as I got older, drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn’t live without.”
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The last time we saw Hayden, she was in a massive fight with boyfriend Brian Hickerson in March. Now she looks better than ever, happy to be getting a second chance.
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