In the years after they broke up, Hayden Panettiere’s relationship with Brian Hickerson was still complicated even at the time of her tragic death.
“Hayden and Brian have been on and off for years, but have pretty much always remained in contact,” a source exclusively shares with Us of the pair’s history prior to her shocking death on Sunday, August 16. She was 36.
“Hayden had a very hard time cutting Brian out of her life,” the source adds. “She did it for short periods, but they would eventually reconnect.”
Panettiere — who shared daughter Kaya, 11, with ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko — was found unresponsive after authorities responded to a cardiac arrest and possible overdose on Sunday. First responders made several life-saving efforts, including CPR and the use of medications, but were ultimately unsuccessful.
The late Remember the Titans star first started dating Hickerson, 36, in 2018. Throughout the years, the pair were by each other’s sides during major life moments, including the death of Hayden’s brother, Jansen Panettiere, in February 2023.
“He was by her side for Jansen’s funeral. She spent the holidays with him and his family in South Carolina in 2024,” the source recalls. “She remained very close with his entire family and spoke to them often.”
Hayden’s relationship with Brian is back in the spotlight after a Greenville City Police Department incident report released on Tuesday, August 18, revealed both Brian and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were at the apartment at the time of Hayden’s death.
“After EMS officially declared Hayden deceased, I escorted Zach and Brian out of the apartment,” the police report, obtained by Us, stated regarding the events that took place on Sunday. “I observed Zach to be very emotional while EMS were working on Hayden. Brian did not become emotional until EMS declared her officially deceased.”
For her memoir, This is Me: A Reckoning, released just three months before her sudden passing, Hayden sat down with Us exclusively and candidly addressed the alleged abuse in her past relationship with Brian.
“Getting an abusive person out of your life is like trying to rip a weed out that is so entangled into your life, and every time you pull it out another weed pops back up and you’re like, I thought I killed this,” she told Us at the time. “They always manage to find a way to slither back in, even if you’re an incredibly strong-willed person. What happened in Wyoming [on Valentine’s Day in February 2020 following another alleged domestic dispute] helped push me in the right direction, but it still took me a long time. I still struggled to fully put a kibosh to it for a while.”
In an interview with NBC News published on Tuesday, August 18, Hayden’s mother, Lesley Vogel, broke her silence on her daughter’s death while condemning Brian for reentering her life.
“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 was Brian Hickerson,” she told the outlet. “There is a lot of history in the past that Brian has enabled Hayden many times, and this is why her father and I had been concerned for a long time about him.”
Before Vogel broke her silence, a separate insider previously told Us that Hayden’s friends were “worried” about the Heroes actress after she reconnected with her ex.
“That relationship and association had led her down a dark path in the past, so her friends and inner circle were worried for her,” the insider claimed. “There were concerns and her friends really hoped she was doing OK.”
In her memoir released in May, Hayden candidly addressed the alleged abuse in her past relationship with Brian.
The source tells Us that Hayden and Brian chose to take “a step back” before the book was available to the public.
“Brian was staying on his mother’s couch in South Carolina. He was not working and would go live on Instagram at all hours of the night talking about random things and showing that he was living with his mother,” the source claims. “Friends knew it would not be long before he found his way back into Hayden’s life once the attention around her new memoir slowed down.”
In an interview with TMZ conducted in May, Brian was asked if he thought Hayden was better off without him. Brian said he would be an “idiot” not to walk away from the late actress in order to let her “flourish in her career.”
“Brian publicly stated in an interview that he knew Hayden would be better off without him,” the source explains. “He was not good for her, but couldn’t leave her alone.”
Us has reached out to reps for Brian and Hayden for comment.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
