The entertainment world was left stunned after the tragic passing of Hayden Panettiere, aged just 36, earlier this week.

Just a few months ago, the former star of television shows such as Heroes and Nashville, as well as the horror movie franchise Scream, appeared on Jay Shetty’s podcast in what was an emotional, candid conversation, where she spoke about her ex, former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko and their daughter Kaya.

As part of that, she revealed a promise that the pair had made when it came to their daughter.

Hayden Panettiere’s relationship with Wladimir Klitschko

Ina Fassbender via Reuters

Panettiere met Klitschko at a mutual friend’s book launch party, with both of them featured within Diana Jenkins’ Room 23. It wasn’t long after that, that they began dating, with Panettiere ringside as Klitschko defeated Samuel Peter by knockout to retain his IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles.

Despite breaking up in 2011, citing struggling with the long-distance nature of their relationship, they rekindled things in 2013 and announced they were engaged by October of the same year.

A year later, Panettiere gave birth to their daughter, though, sadly found herself struggling with postpartum depression. Klitschko and Panettiere broke up again in 2018, but remained friendly, with Klitschko taking full custody of their daughter owing to Panettiere’s issues with addiction and postpartum depression.

The pair remained on good terms, though, keeping a friendly relationship, with Panettiere regularly visiting Kaya. On the podcast with Shetty, Panettiere explained: “Wlad and I are still best friends. There’s not many people who know me in this world as well as he does. And I know that we still have an incredible amount of love for each other. And most important, we have an incredible amount of respect for each other.”

The Promise Made by Klitschko & Panettiere

Reuters/Ina Fassbender Livepic

Growing up, Panettiere revealed that she heard “a lot of negative talk” from her mother about her father, which ended up having a “negative impact” on her. This really shaped how she wanted to go about doing things with her own child one day.

Because of this, she made a promise with Klitschko.

Wladimir Klitschko Breaks Silence on Panettiere’s Tragic Passing

Klitschko said he will “always speak of her mother with respect and make sure she remembers the person she was” to daughter Kaya, when sharing a post to social media, featuring a picture of the three of them together.

Klitschko said: “Our family is going through a time of profound shock and grief. The announcement of Hayden’s tragic death saddens me deeply. She left the world far too soon.

“Hayden was, although no longer my partner, an important part of my life and the mother of our daughter Kaya.”

The boxing star went on to reflect on Panettiere’s “incredible career” as well as her having to face “darker sides of a very demanding industry” before promising that nothing would “erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives.”

Jack Wilshere’s Luton Town came from two goals down to beat Reading in their opening League One game of the season on Saturday afternoon.

The Hatters raced out of the traps and took the lead after just six minutes at Select Car Leasing Stadium through Jake Richards.

Reading equalised minutes later through Jack Marriott, and the 31-year-old scored twice more in the second half to give the home side a 3-1 lead at the interval.

Luton battled back after the break and two goals within 12 minutes from Kasey Palmer restored parity. Luton then completed an unlikely comeback and snatched all three points in the seventh minute of stoppage-time when substitute Gideon Kodua netted the winner.

Jack Wilshere’s Half-Time Team Talk

Action Images/Matthew Childs

Luton have taken to social media to post Wilshere’s half-time team talk, which ultimately inspired them to an unlikely comeback.

The clip starts with Wilshere’s assistant manager, Chris Powell, addressing the players. He said: “Let me tell ya, let me tell ya, you f***in’ can come back in this, alright, whatever the gaffer says, we’ll f***in’ take it on board.”

Wilshere then takes central stage. He said: “The truth is boys I must be f***ing going crazy, but I spent six f***ing weeks telling you we dropped points against counter-attacking teams.

“What happens on day one? We concede three goals, three goals, we give them a hat-trick, a f***ing hat-trick lads.”

Wilshere continued: “Come on please, we can do all we want, but if we ain’t f***ing there in duels, if we don’t land on second balls, it doesn’t matter.

“Be clean, be clean please! We do passing drill after passing drill, where it goes bang, bang opposite side. It’s for now! It’s for now lads! This is where it matters!

“Lads it’s still there for us, it’s still there, we can go and score two in ten minutes and we can f***ing kill them.”

Footage of his team talk has gone viral on social media, with many fans praising Wilshere for his inspiring words.

‘He’s going to be a top top manager,’ one said, while a second commented: ‘I’m now willing to run through a brick wall for Jack Wilshere’.

A third wrote: ‘Just the talk that the team needed. Fantastic,’ while a fourth said: ‘This is what a proper manager looks like… says it how it is!’

A fifth commented: ‘Christ he absolutely nailed it…. and so polite too. That would totally inspire me as a player.’

Wilshere, now 34 years old, has been Luton manager since 2025. He has won 24 of his 45 matches in charge and guided them to a seventh-place finish in League One last season.

The Hatters return to action on Saturday, August 22, when they welcome newly-promoted Notts County to Kenilworth Road.

Arsenal have no intention of allowing striker Viktor Gyokeres to leave the club amid reported interest. The striker arrived at the Emirates Stadium on a £64million deal from Sporting CP last summer after a saga that lasted weeks, and he went on to scored 21 goals across all competitions, including 14 Premier League goals and five more in the Champions League.

That was a solid contribution from the striker, even if his scoring form was naturally better in Portugal, where the competition is typically of a lesser quality. But many feel there is more to come from Gyokeres, and others have shown concern that he is not the elite goalscorer Arsenal need in their front line.

Then again, that would be working under the assumption that Mikel Arteta wants an elite goalscorer. It’s nice to have one, but the Spaniard is much more concerned with how a striker plays within his system, and indeed how they enable the system to work.

Like Kai Havertz, Gyokeres fits the system well, and if he didn’t, Arsenal likely wouldn’t have won the Premier League title last season, given he was largely the starting striker.

There have been some whispers that Barcelona are interested in Gyokeres this summer, but while those rumours do not appear to be truthful in any case, Arsenal seem to have no intention of selling regardless.

Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano said on his YouTube show: “The feeling at Arsenal is that Viktor Gyokeres is going to stay, is that Mikel Arteta is happy. Mikel Arteta believes that Arsenal need a player like Viktor Gyokeres in the squad for his skills – last season he was scoring a lot of goals. And also, not just in terms of numbers, in terms of contributions, Arsenal are convinced that the second season in the Premier League is going to be different. So, Arsenal are very optimistic about Viktor Gyokeres.”

Gyokeres’ first Premier League season in stats

• Appearances: 36
• Goals: 14
• Assists: 1
• Aerial duals won: 0.8 per game
• Shots: 1.5 per game
• Pass success: 62.4%

Arteta has backed Gyokeres

Arteta has been very complimentary of Gyokeres, and he said back in May: “Some of the things you see, certain improvements from players probably the work has not been the day before or two days before, it has been done through months. It doesn’t happen overnight,” “Viktor has been working extremely hard, the level of demands he puts on himself are incredibly high. He always wants to learn, he’s always asking questions, he always wants to do extra things.

“He is always trying to find ways to find connections with his team-mates whether that is in the canteen, in the dressing room or on the pitch. At the end, when you have that kind of behaviour you get rewards.”