Hayden Panettiere is one proud parent — and for good reason. Her daughter Kaya Klitschko, 9, who resides in Europe with her father, Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko, is already multilingual.
“Kaya speaks five languages,” the Nashville actress, 34, says. “English, Russian, Ukrainian, German, and she’s now getting on with her French…she’s a genius!”
“I think language is one thing we do poorly in the US,” she continues. “By the time we start teaching them languages, their brain is already too formed. But when they’re babies and young, they’re like a sponge. You can teach them anything.” She adds, “She doesn’t appreciate it now, but I keep telling her she will!”
When Kaya was three, Panettiere agreed that her daughter should live with her Ukrainian ex while she was in the midst of a struggle with opioids and alcohol. However, in 2018, she revealed on Red Table Talk that she didn’t realize it would be permanent.
“I was gonna go work on myself and I was gonna get better,” Panettiere told Jada Pinkett Smith. “And when I got better things could change and she could come to me and I could have my time with her. But that didn’t happen.”
Panettiere shared on the show that she initially believed her daughter Kaya was simply visiting her father in Ukraine. However, she later discovered that her toddler would be remaining there permanently.
“She was almost 3 and it wasn’t fully my decision,” Panettiere said on the show, of relinquishing custody to Klitschko. “I didn’t even know it was happening until she was already over there.”
Following her daughter’s relocation to Europe, Panettiere has achieved sobriety and resumed her acting career. Additionally, she is set to participate in a three-night speaking series titled “Intimate Conversation with Hayden Panettiere.” Despite the distance, she maintains regular communication with her child, who has developed a passion for horses.
“I believe it’s nature over nurture,” she says. “I have horseback riding in my genetics — my great-uncle once won the Kentucky Derby. I got a video of her the other day watching Racing Stripes, which is a movie she watches on repeat, and she was sitting on this toy hippo and kind of racing the hippo and going crazy — I thought its ears were going to rip off!”
The actress also reveals that her daughter shares her love for swimming, a passion she attributes to her affinity for water.
“She’s just like me,” Panettiere says of Kaya. “When I was working on Nashville, I was pregnant with her and just spent a lot of time in my pool. And she came out just loving water.”
