By Actor Ruby Rose recently got emotional while reflecting on the bond she shared with her good friend and confidante Hayden Panettiere, who died in August.
Rose spoke about Panettiere’s passing during a Sept. 18 interview with Entertainment Tonight, sharing details about the friendship that the two shared over the years. The comments come weeks after Panettiere was found unresponsive at an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina. She was 36.
Rose — who was promoting the upcoming season of reality show “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” on which she is a cast member — began to tear up while speaking about her connection with the late actor.
“That was my best friend,” Rose told the outlet. “We spoke every day for five years.”
Speaking to the outlet ahead of the show’s premiere on Sept. 24, Rose, 40, also revealed the way in which she met Panettiere.
“I didn’t even think we were going to be friends,” Rose said. “I didn’t know if I wanted to have any celebrity friends because I ... don’t have a great experience with the industry.”
Rose explained that while she was initially hesitant to befriend Panettiere, her reservations quickly dissolved.
“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,’” Rose said. “And then we went and talked, and we had everything in common.”
Rose told Entertainment Tonight that she and Panettiere would chat daily, texting and “checking in on each another.”
“It’s a bigger group now. There’s 14 of us that we’ve collected over the years,” Rose said. “That’s really — that’s my family.”
Rose added that all Panettiere “really ever wanted was to have her story told — her way on her terms.”
Panettiere was in cardiac arrest, meaning her heart had stopped beating, when emergency personnel arrived to the apartment on Aug. 16. Her cause of death has not yet been released.
Chief Deputy Coroner Shelton England of the Greenville County, South Carolina Coroner’s Office told NBC News Sept. 16 that the final toxicology results — that will determine Panettiere’s official cause and manner of death — are expected to be released within the next two weeks, he estimated, or possibly sooner.
Both Panettiere and Rose have been vocal about their negative experiences in the entertainment industry. Panettiere reflected on the trauma she endured first as a child actor and later on as an adult in Hollywood in her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” published in May 2026.
“Reality merged with my imagination and burrowed into my core memories, where all my shame and trauma lived. Is it any wonder why I’ve faced so many real struggles in my life?” she wrote.
Rose has also voiced many of her difficult experiences. In 2021, she alleged that she was fired from the CW’s “Batwoman” after she was seriously injured on set. Warner Bros. Television Group denied the allegations, saying in a statement Rose was fired over multiple complaints about her behavior.
Since Panettiere’s death, Rose has posted on social media about the painful loss.
“Missing Hayden more than life today,” Rose wrote in a Sept. 14 Threads post.
