Hayden Panettiere Postpartum Depression Following in 'Nashville' Season 4 Storyline

In a case of life imitating art, it seems that Hayden Panettiere's character on the hit ABC series Nashville might have borrowed a storyline from the star's personal life. While the show incorporated Panettiere's real life pregnancy into her storyline for the show's third season, it looks like they might have also pulled the postpartum depression storyline from her personal life, too. The actress opened up earlier this week during an appearance on Live With Kelly and Michael, and talked about her own experience with the mental illness following the birth of her daughter Kaya last year.

According to Us Weekly, the starlet, who is married hubby Wladimir Klitschko, really wanted to get a conversation going about the sometimes-taboo topic, but she wanted other women to not feel like they were going through it alone.

"I can very much relate. It's something a lot of women experience. When [you're told] about postpartum depression you think it's 'I feel negative feelings towards my child, I want to injure or hurt my child.' I've never, ever had those feelings," Panettiere, 26, told the ABC co-hosts. "Some women do. But you don't realize how broad of a spectrum you can really experience that on. It's something that needs to be talked about. Women need to know that they're not alone, and that it does heal."

"There's a lot of misunderstanding. There's a lot of people out there that think that it's not real, that it's not true," the star future explained, according to Entertainment Weekly. "It's something that's completely uncontrollable. It's really painful and it's really scary and women need a lot of support."

The star is not only giving a voice to PPD in her real life, but her character, Juliette Barnes, is showing a real side to the illness on season 4 of Nashville, which is airing every Wednesday at 10 PM on ABC.