According to police reports released on Tuesday (Aug. 18), Hayden Panettiere‘s onetime boyfriend Brian Hickerson was at the scene, along with his brother Zach, when she died.
- Hayden Panettiere died on Sunday, Aug. 16 in Greenville, S.C. She was 36 years old.
- First responders arrived at a residence after getting a call about an unresponsive person in cardiac arrest.
- Despite efforts to resuscitate her, Panettiere was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:32PM.
- No official cause of death has been released. 911 dispatch audio includes a male official’s voice mentioning an “overdose.” Toxicology results are pending from her autopsy, though a preliminary report has indicated that there were “no signs of trauma” that would have contributed to her death.
Hayden Panettiere’s One-Time Boyfriend Brian Hickerson Was There When She Died
NBC reports that Brian presented police officers with a “bag of medication” belonging to Panettiere, and that he did not become visibly emotional until the actor was pronounced dead. While first responders were attempting to resuscitate Panettiere, an officer identified as Matthew Bryan spoke to a “very emotional” Zach.
Even before that report emerged, it was already public knowledge that Brian and Panettiere were in contact shortly before she died. E! News reported that the two flew from Los Angeles to South Carolina the day beforehand.
An “acquaintance” of Panettiere’s placed the 911 call, though it’s not clear whether Brian, Zach or another party did so.
Who is Brian Hickerson?
Brian Hickerson is an actor who hails from South Carolina and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career.
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Panettiere began dating Hickerson in 2018, shortly after her split from fiancé Wladimir Klitschko, with whom she shares a daughter. At the time, Panettiere was navigating a difficult personal chapter, including ceding custody of her daughter to Klitschko as she battled postpartum depression and addiction.
Brian Hickerson Faced Domestic Violence Charges During His Relationship With Hayden Panettiere
Her relationship with Hickerson was turbulent. He pleaded no contest on two felony domestic violence charges against her in 2021, and was sentenced to 45 days in jail.
He was also sentenced to four years of probation, 52 domestic violence classes, $500 in restitution and a five-year protective order, per People.
In her 2026 memoir This is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere described their relationship as “abusive” and “traumatic.”
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He accepted responsibility for that, according to an interview he gave TMZ in May. “Man, I think it speaks for itself,” Hickerson said. “I got arrested for, you know, abusing her.”
The couple reportedly broke up in 2022, but their relationship was on-again, off-again afterward. She spoke in her book about the “toxic cycle” of trying to end their relationship, but often falling back into old patterns.
Brian Hickerson Remained a Part of Hayden Panettiere’s Life Following Domestic Violence Charges
In that same interview with TMZ, Hickerson makes it seem like he and Panettiere stayed in touch — or even got back together — at some point after the breakup. He references their relationship as lasting “eight years,” and says he’s had a lot of opportunity to apologize for the way he treated the actor.
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Hickerson and Panettiere said that they were not together by the time the book came out, but that they were still friends.
However, TMZ cited an anonymous source who claimed that the two of them were, in fact, a couple while she was promoting her memoir, but that Panettiere’s team had advised her to distance herself from Hickerson publicly.
Hayden Panettiere Spoke Out Against Brian Hickerson in Her First Statement After the Actor’s Death
Panettiere’s estranged mother Lesley Vogel issued her first public statement after the actor’s death to NBC on Tuesday (Aug. 18). In it, she said, “This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death, and that is Brian Hickerson.”
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She also referenced Panettiere’s struggles in the entertainment industry.
“I think Hayden was an amazingly talented person in so many departments,” Vogel reflected, “and I think young people who grow up in the entertainment industry — it is a struggle and it’s a very challenging industry and it’s not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path.”
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Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
