What Hayden Panettiere said about falling into drugs as a teen
Child star admitted to using substances for the first time aged 15 or 16
Hayden Panettiere's comments about being offered drugs as a teenager have resurfaced after the death of the actress last week.
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The 36-year-old died on August 16, just three years after her brother Jansen Panettiere had also died, aged 28.
She left behind her daughter, Kaya, whom she had with her ex-partner, the boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
Panettiere's cause of death is still not known.
She had previously been vocal about suffering postpartum depression and said in her memoir This Is Me, published in May, that she had lost her advertising deal with Neutrogena after going public about the illness.
Neutrogena has since admitted it made her feel "unsupported".
The US Drug Enforcement Agency is joining an investigation into her death and, although it is not known whether drugs played a role in her death, Panettiere's previous comments about substance use have come to light.
Read also: Hayden Panettiere films and TV shows as actress dies aged 36
In This Is Me, she wrote that she was given her first drug when she was 16 and about to do a red carpet event for her TV show Heroes.
"Within minutes, a wave of energy washed over me, like I'd just woken up from the most refreshing night's sleep of my life," she wrote.
"[It was] the gateway drug that ushered me toward the good of pharmaceuticals and the downfall of addiction."
In another interview, she said it was when she was 15 that she was given "happy pills".
"I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction," she said.
Panettiere previously said she went through a phase of drinking first thing to avoid alcohol-induced delirium kicking in. She said that she did not drink during her pregnancy but "fell of the wagon" once Kaya was born.
"Things kept getting out of control [off set]. And as I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn't live without," she said in an interview with People.
She said in the interview that she had recovered and was able to co-parent Kaya with Klitschko.