Hayden Panettiere death latest: On-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson issues first statement ahead of late actor’s 37th birthday

Panettiere’s daughter moved to Ukraine to live with her father, boxer Wladimir Klitschko, in 2018, when Russia had illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and separatist forces were fighting Ukrainian troops in the Donbas region.

When Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, Klitschko, whose brother Vitalii is the mayor of Kyiv and also a former boxing champion, enlisted in the army. Kaya, the outlet reported, was not in Ukraine from the early days of the war.

Panettiere posted repeated messages of solidarity with Ukraine on Instagram in the years that followed.

“I have personally witnessed the strength of the Ukrainian people who fought so hard for their independence and have continued to passionately defend their country over the years. What Putin is doing is an absolute disgrace!,” she wrote on Instagram shortly after the invasion.

“This horrific moment in history sends a terrifying message: the message that in this day and age, in year 2022, it’s okay to violate the rights of free people and allow autocrats like Putin to take whatever they please,” she added.

Neutrogena has addressed criticism over its treatment of Hayden Panettiere, saying it understands that the actor felt “unsupported” during a difficult period in her life.

The skincare brand said in a statement on Thursday: “We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing. For more than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena community.”

“We are proud to have partnered with her and understand that we made her feel unsupported during a very difficult time,” it continued. “This is not what Neutrogena stands for or who we want to be.”

Neutrogena vowed to make a “significant investment to a long-standing community health partner” to support women’s health causes and promised to share more details “when plans are in place.”

Panettiere wrote in her memoir that Neutrogena cancelled her long-standing contract in 2015 after she spoke publicly about her postpartum depression. In a May interview with Jay Shetty, she said: “Of all the things that they would fire me over, this is the last thing that I thought they would ever fire me for.”

Hayden Panettiere’s younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, died in February 2023 at the age of 28 due to complications with his heart.

Jansen had an undiagnosed enlarged heart, as well as aortic valve complications.

His sudden death was extremely painful for Hayden, who told People in 2024: He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him.”

“When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul,” she said.

A few years ago, during a conversation with her former agent, Hayden Panettiere discovered the truth about a situation that had always nagged at her. In 2000, when she was an 11-year-old child actor Panettiere was fired from David Fincher’s home invasion thriller Panic Room after Nicole Kidman left the project, due to an injury. Or so she was told.

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In fact, Fincher had wanted Panettiere to stay on with Jodie Foster, who was replacing Kidman. But he’d asked her mother if Panettiere could cut her hair into a bob, in order to better match Foster. Panettiere’s mother refused.

“I was so out of the loop,” Panettiere recalled in an interview with The Independent in May. “And it was one of the harder things that I’ve experienced. I didn’t think it was fair. And I think a lot about what my life could have been like if I did that film. What parts could I have played? What person would I have been?”

She met Panic Room’s eventual child star, Kristen Stewart, at a friend’s birthday party days before the interview. “We talked about everything that happened, and she was so kind. I felt like, finally, I was able to get it off my chest and let it go.”

Police in Greenville, South Carolina, said officers “responded to a report of an unresponsive female” at around 1:50 pm ET on Sunday (August 16). She was pronounced dead at the scene.

A cause of death has not been revealed, but an autopsy showed no signs of trauma. An investigation is ongoing.

Wladimir Klitschko breaks silence over ex-fiancée’s death

In an Instagram post, Wladimir Klitschko wrote: “Our family is going through a time of profound shock and grief.

“The announcement of Hayden’s tragic death saddens me deeply. She left this world far too soon. Hayden was, although no longer my partner, an important part of my life and the mother of our daughter, Kaya.

“She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry. Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives.

“To our daughter Kaya, I will always speak of her mother with respect and make sure she remembers the person she was.

“I extend my deepest condolences to Hayden’s parents, her friends, and her fans, who are also grieving today. Young and talented people like Hayden should not leave this world so soon.

“I ask everyone to please respect our family’s feelings and privacy during this incredibly difficult time. For now, this is all I wish to say.

“Thank you to everyone who is supporting my family and expressing their sincere condolences.

“Rest easy, Hayden. May you find eternal peace. #WeLoveYouHayden”

Hayden Panettiere opened up about her experience with postpartum depression in 2015, urging women to speak about the condition.

Appearing on Live! With Kelly and Michael in September that year, several months after the birth of her daughter Kaya, Panettiere said: “When they tell you about postpartum depression you think it’s, ‘I feel negative feelings toward my child, I want to injure my child, I want to hurt my child.’

“I’ve never, ever had those feelings. Some women do. But You don’t realise how broad of a spectrum you can really experience that on,” she said.

Panettiere said she wanted to speak publicly because “it’s something that needs to be talked about”. She added: “Women need to know that they’re not alone, and that it does heal.”

When Hayden Panettiere died this Sunday, the 36-year-old Heroes and Nashville star was in South Carolina with an on-and-off boyfriend she’d once described as her “abuser.”

Panettiere first started dating Brian Hickerson, an aspiring actor and real estate agent, in 2018. At the time, she had recently broken up with heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, who is the father of her daughter, Kaya.

In the early days of their courtship, Panettiere and Hickerson were photographed by paparazzi in Los Angeles attending film screenings and eating brunch with friends.

However, by the following year their relationship had taken a dark turn.

Hayden Panettiere was just 18 when she was asked by GQ when she expected to become the latest “screwed-up girl in Hollywood”, after her rise to fame on Heroes.

“Never, never. Cross our fingers,” Panettiere replied in the 2007 interview.

When the interviewer followed up by asking whether she could schedule rehab for her 21st birthday, she responded: “You can’t schedule rehab for me. And I don’t think you can schedule any DUIs. I think I’m going to be one of those boring girls.”

Her Heroes co-star Jack Coleman, who played her on-screen father, remembered the questions in a tribute following her death this week. He said Panettiere was “routinely asked obnoxious questions”, mostly variations of “when are you going to go off the rails?”, calling them “misogynistic provocations”.