Hayden Panettiere terrified of revealing postpartum depression battle

Hayden Panettiere was terrified of announcing her battle with postpartum depression because she did not think she would be accepted.

The Nashville actress gave birth to her first daughter Kaya with her boxing partner Wladimir Klitschko in December, 2014 but she was struggling with the disorder and sought professional help in October (15).

Hayden revealed the news as she promoted her TV show, in which her character Juliette Barnes was facing a eerily similar problem, and she was subsequently written out of the show while she recovered.

She has now admitted it was scary to open up about the disorder because she thought the public would not accept her problem but she finally decided to stop covering it up for the sake of others.

“I was always so terrified that people weren’t going to accept me,” she tells Yahoo! Style. “I finally just went, 'I’m tired of living afraid. I’m tired of living in fear of what people are going to think, so, you know, I’m just going to put it all out there on the table and I’m not going to worry about the judgment.”

She did not expect the outpouring of support she received on social media. She says,“The more open I was, the more acceptance I got from people,” she says. “I got so much support and so much love. I was floored. I feel much more exposed, yes, but in a great way.”

Hayden returned to filming Nashville in January (16), but although she has left rehab and recovered from her postpartum battle, she still has to act out those issues as Juliette.

She admits it has been tough, adding,“It was strange having to throw myself back into that frame of mind... The way I do things is to pull from my own personal experience and sometimes even turn myself into what I’m portraying so that I can pull from my life and step into that person’s shoes by being able to relate.”

Over the weekend (05-06Mar16) Hayden posted pictures to Twitter.com of a family day out to the beach. Alongside Wladimir playing in the sand with Kaya, Hayden writes, "The loves of my life @Klitschko."