Aussie actor Ruby Rose has spoken about the bond she shared with her “best friend” and confidante Hayden Panettiere, following the American actress’ tragic death a month ago.
The Heroes and Nashville star died on August 16 at age 36, sparking an outpouring of grief. Panettiere suffered a cardiac arrest at a home in South Carolina, but her cause of death has not yet been released.
This week, Ruby Rose was asked about Panettiere by Entertainment Tonight and became emotional talking about her friendship with the late actor.
“That was my best friend,” Rose said, adding, “We spoke every day for five years.”
“I didn’t even think we were going to be friends,” she recalled.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to have any celebrity friends because I didn’t have a great experience with the industry.”
Ruby Rose also shared how the two of them first met, saying, “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.
“I just laughed. And then we went and talked, and we had everything in common.”
‘That’s my family’
Ruby Rose told the outlet 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 my family.”
Rose added that all Panettiere “really ever wanted was to have her story told, her way on her terms.”
Hayden Panettiere published her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in May and reflected on the trauma she experienced as both a child actor and an adult in Hollywood.
After Panettiere’s death last month, Rose shared and later deleted screenshots of text messages from Hayden and described her friend as her “protector” on Instagram.
“Our brave, courageous H faced everything head on. She was fearless,” Rose wrote.
On Monday (September 14), Ruby Rose wrote on Threads, “Missing Hayden more than life today.”
Ruby Rose has herself been outspoken about her difficult experiences in the entertainment industry.
In 2021, she alleged that she was fired from the TV series Batwoman after suffering a serious injury on set, allegations the show’s producers disputed at the time.
Ruby Rose signs on to the US version of SAS
Now Ruby Rose has joined the new season of US reality show Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. It’s an American adaptation of the brutal British and Australian military training competition series SAS.
But the Aussie has told People that her new TV gig is not a Hollywood comeback.
“I don’t even know if I’m really back,” she said.
“I’m not as interested in being in the entertainment world as I — well, I actually haven’t ever been all that interested in it.
“Now I think I’m old enough to know that it’s not, probably, for me. And they don’t want me either.”
Image: FOXRose admitted she felt “so healed” by her experience on Special Forces that it gave her second thoughts.
“I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I don’t want to go back to Australia right now.’ But then I had time to think about it, and I’m like, ‘Maybe I do,’” she said.
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