Hayden Panettiere described the “trauma reaction” her daughter, Kaya, experienced after her ex Wladimir Klitschko got full custody.
The actress said in the “Today” show’s sneak peek of her “Red Table Talk” episode, which will be released in full on Wednesday, that the 7-year-old went to Ukraine in 2018 to live with the retired boxer and then started ” other women ask if she can call them mama.”
Panettiere, 33, said her “breath caught” and her “heart stopped” when Klitschko, 46, told her.
“He laughed,” the “Nashville” alum claimed to Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield-Norris and guest co-host Kelly Osbourne.
“He didn’t understand it as … a trauma reaction,” Panettiere said. ‘That’s a cry for help. I immediately said, ‘Can I talk to my daughter?’”
When the “Heroes” alum asked Kaya about her requests to other women, “little ‘goo goo gaga’ started talking…talking gibberish.”
Panettiere said, “I’ve never heard her do that before. It was a trauma she experienced, that I wasn’t there.”
In an earlier clip, the Golden Globe nominee claimed that signing custody of Klitschko was not a “discussion” amid her struggles with opioid and alcohol addiction.
“If he had [spoken to me about the decision] … I would have said, ‘Okay, that makes sense, I get it, I come there to visit and things like that,’ explained Panettiere.
She called the “deeply disturbing” moment the most “heartbreaking” of her life.
Panettiere has spoken out about her efforts to maintain a relationship with Kaya since the move, telling People in July that “letting go” was “best” for her daughter so she could “take care of” herself.
“She has a beautiful life,” the star of “Remember the Titans” beamed at the time.
Panettiere and Klitschko started dating in 2009 and broke up two years later, only to reunite in 2013. Their daughter arrived in 2014, four years before the duo called it quits.