The retired boxer wants standing in Hayden Panettiere's probate case after federal agents removed items from her Los Angeles home during their investigation.
Wladimir Klitschko wants the courts to move fast. The retired heavyweight champion filed papers on September 24 asking a California court to name him temporary guardian of his and Hayden Panettiere's 11-year-old daughter Kaya's estate, according to court documents obtained by TMZ and Us Weekly.
Panettiere died on August 16 at 36. Her cause of death has since been confirmed and the manner ruled an accident, though the investigation into her passing hasn't fully wrapped. She left no will, which means Kaya, her only child, stands to inherit everything, including her West Hollywood condo, according to the filing.
That's exactly the problem Klitschko is racing to solve. Because there's currently no personal representative for the estate, he argues nobody has legal standing to retrieve property once investigators are done with it, or to stop it from disappearing altogether.
The petition claims federal agents accessed Panettiere's home as part of the ongoing probe and removed some of her belongings. Separately, storage units holding designer clothing, accessories and jewelry she'd worn to public appearances have reportedly been relocated as a precaution. The documents also reference an earlier security arrangement Panettiere had put in place over what's described as a documented concern about someone gaining unauthorized access to her property, and say locks at the home were changed after her death.
None of that has been tested or proven in court. It's what Klitschko's filing alleges, and it's the basis for his argument that things need to move quickly. His papers call the situation urgent, warning that without an appointed guardian, estate property "may be lost, damaged or dissipated" before anyone with authority can step in to protect it. Celebrity Net Worth estimates Panettiere's fortune at around $6 million at the time of her death.
Klitschko and Panettiere's history goes back to 2009. They dated, split, got back together in 2013 and got engaged. Kaya was born in December 2014. Panettiere has spoken openly for years about the postpartum depression that followed, and in 2018 she made the call to give Klitschko primary custody, a decision she's said was about giving their daughter stability rather than dragging her through a fight.
"Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life, and it's hard to describe the layers of emotion, including sadness, resentment, and anger, that I've felt because of it," Panettiere said at the time. "I grieve that I'm not the mother I thought I'd be and definitely not the mother I want to be, and although I miss Kaya so much my heart aches, I know how blessed I am to be her mom."
The couple separated in 2019 but kept co-parenting. Kaya has lived mostly in Europe since, largely out of the spotlight by both parents' design.
For now, the guardianship request sits with a California court. If granted, Klitschko gets the standing to file Panettiere's probate petition and nominate someone to formally administer her estate, the step that actually determines what comes back to Kaya and when.
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