{"id":7173,"date":"2026-08-18T23:37:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T23:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7173"},"modified":"2026-08-18T23:37:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T23:37:33","slug":"hayden-panettiere-died-while-staying-with-ex-boyfriend-from-toxic-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7173","title":{"rendered":"Hayden Panettiere died while staying with ex-boyfriend from ‘toxic’ romance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Saturday, the day before Hayden Panettiere died in Greenville, South Carolina, she reportedly flew there from Los Angeles, accompanied by her ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson, with whom she had an intense and volatile four-year relationship, marked by heavy drinking, fighting and his arrests on domestic violence charges.<\/p>\n

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Both TMZ and Page Six reported that Hickerson brought the 36-year-old film and TV actor, who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, to stay at the loft apartment where he had been living with his brother. TMZ also said he had been staying there recently, that it was an Airbnb and that they had rekindled their romance but were keeping it quiet \u201cto protect her career.\u201d But it\u2019s not known if he was with her at the apartment on Sunday, when she suffered an apparent drug overdose and went into cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

An unidentified friend called 911 to report \u201ca potential overdose,\u201d according to audio of the call obtained by People. TMZ also reported that Narcan was found in the apartment after Panettiere was pronounced dead at the scene. Narcan is administered nasally to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and the device used to dispense it was found on a mattress in the apartment. A police spokesperson said the preliminary investigation showed no \u201csigns of foul play or suspicious circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of Panettiere\u2019s death, the former star of \u201cHeroes,\u201d \u201cNashville\u201d and the \u201cScream\u201d franchise had not said anything publicly about resuming her romantic relationship with Hickerson, and people were left to wonder if they had begun to see each other platonically. The two supposedly ended their romance in 2022, according to the Daily Mail and other outlets.<\/p>\n

As Panettiere described in her recently published memoir, \u201cThis Is Me: A Reckoning,\u201d she and Hickerson, 37, met in the summer 2018 when she was newly single and out of rehab after making the \u201cgut-wrenching\u201d decision to give up custody of her then-3-year-old daughter because of her ongoing struggles with addiction and postpartum depression. With her daughter living with her father, Ukrainian former world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, Panettiere moved back to Los Angeles after wrapping up six seasons on \u201cNashville.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panettiere and Hickerson met at a bar in Los Angeles, after which the aspiring actor and real estate agent from South Carolina swept her off her feet \u201cat lightning speed.\u201d Within weeks, they were living together and barely leaving the house \u2014 dancing in her living room, redecorating, playing board games and watching \u201cpractically every Netflix series ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI finally began to feel beautiful again,\u201d Panettiere wrote, praising his smile and sense of humor. \u201cI also started to feel safe, loved and cherished. It was like Brian and I were two best friends living together under one roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then \u201cone day,\u201d when they were on their second bottle of wine, \u201ceverything changed,\u201d Panettiere wrote. A conversation turned heated, she said something she regretted, he became angry and screamed at her, they tussled over a paring knife and he slapped her. That slap left her confused and \u201cin an in-between place\u201d because she couldn\u2019t believe that the man she loved would hurt her.<\/p>\n

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Over time, \u201cthe slaps become hits,\u201d Panettiere wrote. \u201cOne night he busts up my face so badly I don\u2019t leave the house for weeks,\u201d she wrote. \u201cAnother day he screams at me to run as far as I can in five seconds because I\u2019ll need a head start before he throws the remote control at me. This is a man who doesn\u2019t miss, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickerson was arrested and charged with domestic violence for incidents in 2019 and in 2020, the Daily Mail and Page Six reported. The first case was dropped after Panettiere accepted his apology, while the\u00a0 second sent him to jail for 45 days after he pleaded no contest in 2021 to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend.<\/p>\n

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Following Hickerson\u2019s first arrest in 2019, a Hickerson family source told Us Weekly that his family was troubled by their relationship, the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian\u2019s family is extremely concerned for his safety when he is with Hayden,\u201d the source told Us Weekly. \u201cThey are terrified that Brian will once again find himself accused of domestic violence. Hayden and Brian are very toxic for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to the Daily Mail, the troubles did not end after Hickerson served time in jail \u2014 and neither did their romance. In May 2022, the two got into a fight inside the bar of the Sunset Marquis hotel in L.A., and Hickerson was photographed being restrained by a bystander, the Daily Mail said. Panettiere was reportedly overheard yelling: \u201cBrian, jail!\u201d \u2014 a reminder that he was still on four years\u2019 probation. Following that incident, the two split in July 2022, seemingly for good, the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n

But around the time that Panettiere\u2019s memoir was published in May, she and Hickerson seemed to be back, at least\u00a0 on friendly terms. In an interview with TMZ, Hickerson praised Panettiere and said her account of the violence in their relationship was true, the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho wants to read something about themselves, right?\u201d he told TMZ about reading her memoir. \u201cBut you gotta be vulnerable and I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickerson also said he still loved her and still hoped to marry her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope so, (but) she probably doesn\u2019t think the same way,\u201d Hickerson said. \u201cI think Hayden is one of most talented people I\u2019ve ever met in my life, and I would be an idiot not to walk away from her and let her flourish in her career.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time Panettiere was publicizing her memoir, she and Hickerson had resumed their romance, but were keeping it quiet, TMZ reported Monday. That\u2019s because her team believed that Hickerson was \u201cbad for business\u201d and their complicated history would be perceived as being bad for book sales.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, they were in constant communication during her promotional tour for her book \u2014 even as Panettiere maintained a public distance. That includes when a TMZ reporter found her at the airport and asked about Hickerson\u2019s wish to marry her. She laughed and said: \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This story has been updated.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading Panettiere’s recently published memoir, her ex-boyfriend admitted that everything she wrote about him being violent was true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nHayden Panettiere died while staying with ex-boyfriend from ‘toxic’ romance - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7173\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hayden Panettiere died while staying with ex-boyfriend from ‘toxic’ romance - 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