Hayden Panettiere was celebrated over the weekend at a memorial service held in California, her representative confirmed to ABC News.
Around 80 friends of the late Nashville star, who died on Aug. 16 at the age of 36, gathered in Malibu on Saturday to share “an evening of music, memories, laughter and tears.”
“We wanted to honor Hayden in the best way we knew how—with as much love as possible,” Panettiere’s representative, Kasey Kitchen, said in a statement with a group of the actress’s friends, who jointly organized the memorial.
The statement continued, “It was a beautiful and intimate ceremony where friends came together to celebrate her life and honor the beautiful, magnetic light and love she infused into the world.”
Panettiere’s Nashville co-star Connie Britton and other celebrities, including Evan Ross and Ruby Rose, were photographed attending the memorial.
Panettiere died after she was found unresponsive and in cardiac arrest at a Greenville, South Carolina, apartment.
The actress’s official cause and manner of death have not yet been announced.
An investigation into her death has expanded from South Carolina to Los Angeles, and investigators are focusing on the role drugs may have played in her death, sources told ABC News last week.
Kitchen, Panettiere’s representative, said in a statement on Sept. 15 that her death “remains under investigation pending toxicology results.”
“As we await the answers we are all seeking, may we also remember Hayden for the incredible legacy she leaves behind — the light she shined on mental health and postpartum depression, and the voice she gave to those who felt unseen and unheard,” Kitchen said. “The answers we are all seeking will come.”
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