Hayden Panettiere is throwing her support behind Paris Jackson after both women got candid about their respective addiction struggles.
Appearing on The Morning Show on Thursday, May 28, Panettiere, 36, was asked whether she related to some of the issues Paris had recently been open about dealing with.
Paris, who is the daughter of late pop star Michael Jackson, spoke about the “ugly behavior” she typically engaged in when she hit the bottle.
“The behavior is really ugly. It’s really ugly behavior in a moral way, because I was raised to be kind — and not nice,” Paris, 28, said during a Tuesday, May 26, appearance on Jack Osbourne’s “Trying Not to Die” podcast. “I could give a s**t about being nice — but being kind and looking people in the eye and asking the waiter their name so you can write it down on the receipt later, just little things of, just like, how do you treat people?”
Paris added, “What happens when I drink is that goes away. That goes right out the window and I become a very vindictive person.”
The Heroes alum praised Paris for her comments as well as the way she has navigated her personal difficulties so far.
“I actually just saw Paris and she’s an incredible person, incredibly strong. To see somebody who’s also battled addiction and made it through — she’s such a powerful, beautiful person,” Panettiere said on The Morning Show.
She added, “And you would think… I mean growing up with a family the way that she has and now that she’s you know, putting her music out there, it’s just… I’m really proud of her.”
The Nashville star has fought her own demons. In her new memoir, This Is Me: The Reckoning, Panettiere shared details of her addiction battle and her experience in rehab.
Speaking to Us Weekly to promote the book earlier this month, Panettiere explained how eight months in rehab – her third stint – helped her find herself again.
“It was time. I finally had the time to stay in treatment and let my brain re-heal and rewire itself and a lot of that is just simply time. I had never stayed in treatment that long,” she told Us. I would make these small leaps and little by little. And I remember getting to about eight months and going, ‘Oh my gosh, now I know what they mean when they say “gotten over the hump.”’”
She continued, “Even though it takes patience and you hit walls, and there’s nothing about it that’s easy, it is so worth it. There’s no drug in the world that can recreate the feeling of genuine health and happiness and contentment, being content.”
