Hayden Panettiere once broke down as she spoke about the death of her younger brother, describing the loss three years ago as the deepest heartbreak of her life — an emotional admission that came only months before her own tragic passing.
Panettiere, 36, was remembered as “an incredible light” when her death was announced on Sunday. Her passing followed the 2023 death of her brother, Jansen Panettiere, who was 28.
In a candid interview earlier this year, the actress opened up about the devastation of losing her younger sibling, who died from complications linked to his “enlarged” heart.
“There’s nothing in my life that feels like losing my other half. He was born to be the yin to my yang,” the actress told Jay Shetty in May, visibly emotional as she tried to hold back tears.
“We were so close, and especially being the older sibling, it’s your job to protect them and keep them safe, and not being able to is… I mean, heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
Jansen, who like his sister had worked as a child actor, died at age 28 after heart-related complications. He had also struggled with his mental health and addiction.
“I would need a dictionary to go through all the words for all the feelings that you go through in your mind,” Panettiere continued.
“I know time is the best healer, but it’s been three years and every year the heartbreak has changed. But losing him and realizing how much of life I was going to have to go through alone and without him, where I always saw him as being there.”
Panettiere is remembered as ‘an incredible light’ after her tragic death was announced on Sunday just three years after her brother, Jansen, passed away
Panettiere’s brother Jansen, who was also a child star, died at 28 years old after complications with his ‘enlarged’ heart
Panettiere’s death was announced on Sunday: ‘It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden.’
Her cause of death was not immediately clear.
‘She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her – and to the millions who watched her onscreen,’ the statement added.
Her tragic passing comes just over three years after Jansen was found dead in his apartment in Nyack, New York, ‘sitting upright in a chair unresponsive.’
Panettiere was left ‘inconsolable’ over her brother’s death, with neighbors telling Our News Outlet that Jansen had been abusing prescription painkillers.
‘There’s been so many times I want to call him all the time. He was my best friend and when he first died I remember screaming, “I don’t want to live in a world where he doesn’t exist,”‘ Panettiere told the podcaster earlier this year.
‘That’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get over. I feel him with me. I know that he’s protecting me from where he is and was needed elsewhere, but I wish he could be sent back to me.’
Law enforcement confirmed that police had responded to an incident at the actress’s home and an investigation is ongoing.
Sources also told the outlet that Panettiere had been recently complaining of back pain and that she and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, flew from Los Angeles to the south just one day before her tragic passing.
The Hollywood star earned multiple award nominations across her career, most notably while playing cheerleader Claire Bennet on Heroes and Juliette Barnes on Nashville.
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Panettiere was left ‘inconsolable’ over her brother’s death, with neighbors telling Our News Outlet that Jansen had been abusing prescription painkillers
She also appeared in the Scream franchise as Kirby Reed, and lent her voice to the video games Until Dawn and Kingdom Hearts.
The tragic news of her death comes just months after her memoir, This is Me: A Reckoning, became a New York Times bestseller.
In the book, Panettiere described how she contended with fame and handled the difficulties in her life.
She had suffered from drug addiction, beginning when she was just 15 years old.
At the time, she claimed she started taking ‘happy pills’ in an effort to make her seem more ‘peppy’ during interviews.
Her addiction then became worse as she was battling postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter Kaya in 2014.
But Panettiere has been sober in recent years, she said in a 2022 interview, noting that ‘it’s an everyday battle.’
‘It’s an everyday choice, and I’m checking in with myself all the time,’ Panettiere told People at the time.
Panettiere leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter with ex Wladimir Klitschko
Panettiere started out as a child star, with her first acting gig at just 11 months old
‘But I’m just so grateful to be part of this world again, and I will never take it for granted again.’
She has also told how she nearly died during childbirth, and later relinquished custody of her daughter to her ex, former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, while struggling with postpartum depression in 2018.
Her daughter now lives in Europe.
‘The idea that anybody would think that I would just give away my child and be okay with it is heartbreaking. Couldn’t be further from the truth,’ Panettiere told Shetty.
‘I was struggling with mental health and anxiety and postpartum and having to act my way through it, and just feeling like I completely lost myself,’ she added.
Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989 in Palisades, New York. She first started acting at just 11 months old when she appeared on screen in a commercial.
