Panettiere.
Picture: Janet Mayer/Shutterstock
The beloved actress Hayden Panettiere died on August 16 at 36, abandoning an unforgettable legacy together with roles in movies Bear in mind the Titans, Ice Princess, and Scream 4 and main components on TV collection like Heroes and Nashville. She died of cardiac arrest that was brought on by an obvious drug overdose, the New York Occasions reported. All through her grownup life, she was open about her struggles with little one stardom, postpartum melancholy, and drug abuse. With the discharge of her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in Could, Panettiere reentered the highlight and was even engaged on new initiatives after a number of troubled years, which made her premature demise much more stunning. As tributes to the late star rolled in, a collection of controversies, each authorized and private, have began to floor. Listed below are the most important questions surrounding the aftermath of her demise.
Panettiere was in an condominium advanced in Greenville, South Carolina, together with her on-again, off-again ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zack Hickerson, on the time of her demise, per the New York Occasions. The brothers referred to as 911 at 1:51 p.m. on August 16, and emergency medical personnel have been dispatched and “tried to carry out life saving strategies for an prolonged period of time,” per a police report. She was pronounced useless at 2:30.
In her memoir, Panettiere detailed her abusive relationship with Brian, a former actor who, per his LinkedIn, at the moment works as an govt assistant. The 2 met eight years in the past at a West Hollywood bar. “Seven years of psychological sickness, dependancy, rage, abuse, and ache,” she wrote in her guide. “Don’t get me mistaken, there have been additionally good occasions — virtually too many to rely. However good moments normally don’t depart scars like unhealthy ones do.” An August 23 NYT story says Panettiere had a safety group together with her throughout her guide tour, and gave “clear directions to maintain [Hickerson] away.”
Brian additionally spoke candidly about his ingesting drawback and violent habits. “I had loads to drink, and I obtained bodily together with her,” he informed TMZ. She ultimately pressed costs towards him, and he pleaded responsible to 2 felony counts of injuring a partner or girlfriend. He then requested to have these counts diminished to misdemeanors however was denied three days earlier than Panettiere died, per ABC Information 13.
The investigation into Panettiere’s demise is at the moment being led by the Greenville Police Division, however the Drug Enforcement Administration joined forces on August 20, per ABC Information. The DEA has not but defined why it’s taking part, however it has assisted with investigations into earlier superstar drug-related deaths, like Matthew Perry’s. The police report states that Brian confirmed officers a bag with medicine that he claimed Panettiere was taking. We all know that native investigators visited Brian following Panettiere’s demise. Moreover, considered one of Panettiere’s West Hollywood neighbors, Mia Terrazas, alleged to Inside Version that she’d referred to as 911 at the very least six occasions over home disturbances between the 2. “I noticed her leaving on a gurney. Brian was proper subsequent to her, and I requested her if she was okay, and it seemed to me that she had suffered some kind of trauma that appeared to be battering,” Terrazas mentioned. “It was clear she was terrified.”
Brian’s lawyer, Sloan Ellis, made what quantities to his first public assertion since Panettiere’s demise on August 20. “Hayden’s demise stays below investigation and you will need to enable that investigation to proceed,” Ellis informed TMZ. “As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there have been no indicators of foul play. Out of respect for Hayden’s family members and the continuing investigation, there might be no additional remark presently.”
On August 23, Panettiere’s mom, Lesley Vogel, claims she had frolicked in Los Angeles together with her daughter a 12 months in the past, “when she was in ache. She was afraid. She couldn’t bodily operate correctly.” She says she took Panettiere to an acupuncturist to deal with the sensation of “pins and needles” she reported feeling in her legs. Vogel says the pins and needles impacted her potential to stroll. Panettiere was thrown from a zebra on the set of Racing Stripes. In her memoir, she wrote that her accidents from the film nonetheless bothered her 20 years later. Panettiere was seen utilizing crutches as late as March of this 12 months.
Panettiere and her household skilled a number of loss and trauma all through the years. Panettiere particularly had a strained relationship with Vogel, relationship again to her days as a baby star. She was primarily raised on movie and TV units, and having her mother as a “momager” led to them changing into estranged. Vogel, a former cleaning soap actress, had Panettiere in 1989 together with her husband, Skip Panettiere. Hayden had a youthful brother, Jansen Panettiere, who was born in 1994 and died in 2023 from a coronary heart defect. “He was my solely sibling, and it was my job to guard him,” Hayden informed Folks in 2024. “Once I misplaced him, I felt like I misplaced half of my soul … I’ll all the time be heartbroken about [him], I’ll by no means have the ability to recover from it. Irrespective of what number of years go by, I’ll by no means recover from his loss.”
Skip was the primary individual from the household to substantiate Hayden’s demise, per ABC Information. “It’s with profound unhappiness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” he mentioned in a press release on August 16. “She was an unimaginable mild and a power of nature who introduced immeasurable love and pleasure to all who knew her — and to the thousands and thousands who watched her onscreen,” Then, on August 18, Vogel, who was estranged from Hayden on the time of her demise, gave her first interview to NBC Information, claiming her daughter “misplaced her manner.” “This individual in her life that we’ve got been making an attempt to do away with for fairly a while was together with her at her demise and that was Brian Hickerson,” Vogel added. “I feel Hayden was an amazingly gifted individual in so many departments and I feel younger individuals who develop up within the leisure business — it’s a battle and it’s a really difficult business and it’s commonplace for them to sadly discover the mistaken path.”
Her chilly feedback stood in stark distinction to the nice and cozy reminiscences that a lot of Hayden’s buddies and former colleagues had of her. Gayle King referred to as out this lack of empathy on August 19 whereas on air for CBS Mornings. “You already know, guys, you learn this and all I can assume is, Thanks, Mother, for nothing,” King mentioned. She added, “It makes me so unhappy, the chance that you’ve after your daughter’s demise that that’s what you select to go away us with.” Following King’s feedback, Vogel adopted up with a press release to Leisure Tonight. “Though my daughter and I have been estranged, it was not for lack of care or love,” she mentioned. “It was because of the involvement of a poisonous particular person who I imagine led to her demise.” A mom herself, Hayden is survived by her daughter, Kaya, whom she had with Ukrainian boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko. “To our daughter Kaya,” Klitschko promised in a press release following Hayden’s demise, “I’ll all the time converse of her mom with respect and ensure she remembers the individual she was.” After Hayden gave up custody, Kaya moved to dwell in Ukraine together with her father full time.
Hayden Panettiere starred in a well-remembered collection of commercials for Neutrogena within the 2000s. In her memoir, Panettiere claimed that she misplaced her Neutrogena contract after voluntarily checking herself into rehab whereas fighting postpartum melancholy. Whereas mourning her demise, some followers have referred to as for a boycott of Neutrogena merchandise.
The corporate responded to the boycott efforts with a press release on Instagram, posted on August 20. “We’re deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing,” the assertion begins. “For greater than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena neighborhood. We’re proud to have partnered together with her and perceive that we made her really feel unsupported throughout this very tough time. This isn’t what Neutrogena stands for or who we wish to be.” The corporate went on to vow a obscure “important funding” to a “well being companion” and tease extra data will come quickly.
Followers have reexamined a lot of Panettiere’s tales from her memoir. One of the vital stunning comes from when she was 18 on a yacht social gathering in France, and a buddy she trusted, whom she calls Stella McAmis, introduced her to a mattress. There, “a well-known British singer-songwriter” was bare. “Stella leaned down and whispered in my ear. ‘I would like you to get in mattress with him. He has an enormous dick,’” she wrote. “She pulled again the covers on the unoccupied aspect of the mattress, and I did as I used to be informed. My ideas have been a blur, however I’d spent my life trusting that others had my greatest pursuits at coronary heart. Being ‘managed’ was routine, to the purpose the place I misplaced religion in my instinct.” After McAmis left, Panettiere ran out of the room. Some have tried speculating on who the unnamed folks within the story are, however there was no affirmation. Nevertheless, the bigger narrative is evident: Hollywood failed her.
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