Ruby Rose got emotional when asked about her friend, Hayden Panettiere, who died Aug. 16 at 36.
Rose told Entertainment Tonight that Panettiere was her “best friend” and that they “spoke every day for five years.”
“I didn’t even think we were going to be friends,” Rose said, tearing up. “I didn’t know if I wanted to have any celebrity friends, because I didn’t have a great experience with the industry.”
She shared how the two of them first met, saying, “I saw her, she saw me, and I just remember thinking, ‘Oh, no.’ And then she ran up anyway and was like, ‘Hey, I’m Hayden. Can we go talk somewhere? We’ve got a lot in common.’ I just laughed.”
The two quickly became close after realizing they “had everything in common,” Rose said. Throughout their five-year friendship, they texted each other every day to check in.
“Hayden, all that she ever wanted was to have her story told her way, on her terms,” Rose said.
Panettiere, who was known for her roles on “Heroes,” “Nashville,” “Scream 4” and “Scream VI,” openly spoke about her struggles with drug and alcohol addiction in her 2026 memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning.” Days after her death, the Drug Enforcement Administration joined the investigation, working with South Carolina’s Greenville Police Department to determine her cause of death.
Hollywood stars shared tributes online after news of her death became public, including Jack Coleman, who played her father on “Heroes.”
“I’m heartbroken. I couldn’t begin to put my thoughts into words until now, and they will be inadequate,” Coleman wrote. “I’ve loved Hayden since day one of the pilot of ‘Heroes,’ 20 years ago, when she introduced herself by shouting ‘daddy’ and throwing her arms around me. From that day on, she called me daddio. She was Haydini, because she was a magician.”