Hayden Panettiere Reveals The Truth About Connie Britton’s ‘Nashville’ Death

Nashville fans were left devastated after Connie Britton’s character Rayna Jaymes was shockingly killed off on the drama last week, and now Hayden Panettiere is opening about the character’s death while revealing that it’s still “hard” for her to talk about.

Panettiere, who has played Juliette Barnes on the show since it first began, got candid about Britton’s Nashville departure during an appearance on The Talk on March 3, admitting that discussing Connie’s exit and Rayna’s death is still tough for her to discuss.

“It’s hard for me to even talk about it,” Hayden said of Rayna’s death on the show per Entertainment Tonight, recalling during her appearance on The Talk that filming her final scenes with Britton were extremely difficult.

“That was also the day that, you know, she’s lying in the hospital bed,” continued Hayden, who became a mother to daughter Kaya Evdokia Klitschko in 2014. “[Rayna’s] daughters are singing this song for her, and as a mother, the idea of seeing two little girls lose their mom, it’s hard for me to talk about. It really is,” Panettiere said.

“Oh my gosh, that day was… ugh,” Panettiere continued of filming her final Nashville scenes with Connie prior to Rayna’s death.

Hayden also admitted in the interview that it was tough to see her character Juliette say goodbye to Rayna, as the two haven’t always seen eye-to-eye during Nashville’s five season run.

“I feel like when you have those strange relationships with people in your life that when they go, it’s worse,” Hayden admitted, “because you feel like you have all those loose ends that you haven’t gotten to tie up,” she said of their Nashville character’s drama over the years.

Though Hayden didn’t reveal exactly why Britton decided it was time to leave Nashville, Hayden did go on to hint on The Talk that a lot of Juliette’s response to Rayna’s death was also her own response to saying goodbye to Connie, who Panettiere has worked alongside since Nashville first began in 2012.

“I say to her, ‘All I ever wanted was for you to be proud of me.’ And it was that moment where finally the truth came out, how much I respected her, and how much I looked up to her,” Hayden Panettiere continued of saying goodbye to Connie Britton amid Rayna Jaymes’ shocking Nashville death.

Nashville fans were not happy after seeing Rayna’s death in the recent episode of the CMT drama, lashing out at Connie for leaving the series after they fought so hard to save the series after Nashville was initially canceled by ABC last year, only to be brought back to life on the country music network due to fan demand.

A number of fans made it clear that they were not happy with Britton for leaving Nashville and having Rayna killed off following the character’s death, taking to Twitter to voice their anger over Nashville’s shocking decision to kill of Rayna.

“Really angry such BS,” Nashville fan @gillibugz tweeted wrote on the social media site after seeing Rayna’s death play out in the episode “If Tomorrow Never Comes.” “We save Nashville only for Rayna to die! #speechless. What about Deacon? You killed love CMT.”

“How could they do this??? Bring Connie back!!” another Nashville fan wrote on the social media site after seeing Rayna’s death after she slipping into a coma. “She IS Nashville with Deacon… so sad and angry.”

It hasn’t yet been confirmed if Connie was let go from the show or if it was her decision to leave Nashville after five seasons, though the death for Rayna was speculated back in August after it was revealed that Britton had not signed on to appear in every episode of Season 5, suggesting it was Britton’s decision to leave Hayden and her fellow co-stars behind.

What do you think of Hayden Panettiere’s confessions about Connie Britton leaving Nashville and Rayna Jaymes’s shocking death?

[Featured Image by David Livingston/Getty Images]