Celebrity4 min(s) read
Published 08:51 17 Aug 2026 GMT
Hayden Panettiere’s heartbreaking confession about brother she called her ‘other half’ resurfaces after her unexpected death
Actress Hayden Panettiere, best known for her roles in Heroes and Nashville, has died at the age of 36.
Her death was confirmed in a statement from her representative to ABC News, with no cause of death given.
Skip Panettiere, Hayden's father, said in a statement: "It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,
"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," it read.
The father also asked for privacy, while "our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss."
Details around the former child star's death were not made public.
Panettiere's emotional admission about her brother
Following Panettiere's untimely death, her words about the death of her little brother three years ago have resurfaced.
Earlier this year, she described it as the "biggest heartbreak" of her life, just months before her own death.
Her brother, Jensen, was 28 when he died in 2023, as the Scream star opened up about how it felt to lose her younger brother as the result of complications with his 'enlarged' heart.
Speaking to author Jay Shetty in a candid interview in May 2026, Panettiere admitted: "There's nothing in my life that feels like losing my other half. He was born to be the yin to my yang," as she held back tears.
She went on: "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."
Jensen was also a child star and died from heart complications as well as a battle with addiction and his mental health.
Panettiere admitted: "I would need a dictionary to go through all the words for all the feelings that you go through in your mind,
"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," she said.
Hayden Panettiere lifted the lid on Hollywood
In the same interview with Shetty, the late actress opened up about a "well-respected Oscar winner" who crossed the line with her while at a boat party.
She confirmed in the podcast episode that she was taken onto a boat by a friend before being led into a room with an older man.
Panettiere explained in the book that she was speaking to a group of men in "their forties and fifties" at the party, which she attended with a friend.
She wrote that she "sensed these men's eyes on me and it made me uncomfortable."
The actress explained that she felt like a "young commodity ripe for the picking" at the time and decided to leave, though a man, who was said to be an "Oscar-winning actor and director," approached her as she was putting her coat on.
The anonymous figure then allegedly said he had a "big wad of gum on his pants," as the actress recalled: "I looked down and recoiled. This well-respected, award-winning actor's testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly."
As a result, Panettiere fled the party without saying goodbye to her friend, too shocked to do anything else.
"Up to that moment, men in Hollywood had always been kind and respectful around me. There may have been a peck on the lips here and an inappropriate comment there, but nothing had crossed a line," she recalled.