Hayden Panettiere is one proud parent — and for good reason.
Her daughter Kaya Klitschko (9), who lives in Europe with her father, Ukrainian boxer Wladamir Klitschko, already speaks several languages.
“Kaya speaks five languages,” he said Nashville the actress, 34, tells PEOPLE. “English, Russian, Ukrainian, German, and now she’s started French too…she’s a genius!”
“I think language is something we do poorly in the US,” she continues. “By the time we start teaching them languages, their brains are already too formed. But when they’re babies and young, they’re like sponges. You can teach them anything.” She adds, “She doesn’t appreciate it now, but I keep telling her she will!”
When Kaya was three years old, Panettiere agreed that her daughter should live with her ex-Ukrainian man while she was in the midst of a battle with opioids and alcohol. However, in 2018, she revealed Talk about the red table that she didn’t realize that it would be permanent.
Hayden Panettiere revealed addiction to opioids and alcohol: ‘I was in a cycle of self-destruction’
“I wanted to work on myself and I’m going to get better,” Panettiere told Jada Pinkett Smith. “And when I got better, things could change and she could come to me and I could spend time with her. But that didn’t happen.”
Hayden Panettiere and Wladamir Klitschko in happier times. Franziska Krug/Getty
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On the show, Panettiere noted that she thought her daughter Kaya was just visiting her father in Ukraine at the time — but later learned that her child would be staying forever.
“She was almost 3 years old and it wasn’t entirely my decision,” Panettiere said on the show, handing over custody to Klitschko. “Actually, I didn’t even know it was happening until she was already there.”
Hayden Panettiere says daughter Kaya, 7, ‘is safe and not in Ukraine’ after Russian invasion
Since her daughter moved to Europe, Panettiere sobered up and returned to acting. She will also embark on a three-day stint on the “Intimate Conversation with Hayden Panettiere” speaker series, and remains in regular contact with her child – who she says is obsessed with horses.
“I believe nature comes before nurture,” she says. “Riding is in my genetics – my great uncle once won the Kentucky Derby. I got a video the other day of him watching Racing stripesmovie she watches all the time, and she was sitting on this toy hippo and she was kind of racing the hippo and going crazy — I thought she was going to rip his ears off!”
The actress also says her daughter loves swimming, which she attributes to her own love of water.
“She’s just like me,” Panettiere says of Kaya. “When I worked on Nashville, I was pregnant with her and I just spent a lot of time in my pool. And she came out just worshiping the water.”
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Source: HIS Education