Celebrity4 min(s) read
A clip from May 2026 has resurfaced following the death of Hayden Panettiere, as her ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson opened up about the domestic abuse claims made against him.
The actress tragically passed away on Sunday (August 16), as 911 audio indicated that “CPR [was] in progress” within minutes of the call, after Panettiere was found unresponsive at a South Carolina residence before her death.
Dispatch audio also referenced a potential overdose and cardiac arrest, while unconfirmed reports mentioned that Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, was present at the residence.
It has not been confirmed whether the medication was administered, as the actress has traveled to South Carolina from Los Angeles with her on-and-off partner Brian Hickerson the day before the incident.
An autopsy revealed no signs of trauma, though an investigation remains active and ongoing.
Now an old interview clip of Hickerson, who officials said was 'emotionless' upon learning of Panettiere's death, has resurfaced online.
Hickerson and Panettiere endured a complicated on-again, off-again relationship, which the latter covered in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.
The Heroes and Nashville actress stated that she struggled to cut him off before successfully doing so, though both Hickerson and his brother Zach were inside the South Carolina apartment when first responders arrived at the Judson Mill Lofts Airbnb, as per a new police report.
But in a resurfaced interview with TMZ, he admitted that there was one incident that he didn't want included in the memoir, which was included anyway.
He told the publication: “There’s a story where I was drunk, right? Hayden was standing across the room, and I had a phone in my hand, and I said, ‘Hayden, I’ll give you 10 seconds to run as fast as you can before I throw it at you.’”
Hickerson admitted: “Who wants to read something about themselves, right?
“But you gotta be vulnerable, and I did it. I did it, so.”
Looking back at their time together, he explained: “I went into such a dark place, man, drugs, alcohol. Good God, almighty, she’s 5-foot-2 on paper, 4-foot-11 in real life. I mean, come on.”
Cops claimed that Hickerson had punched Panettiere on Valentine's Day in 2020 at a private residence in Jackson, Wyoming, "with a closed fist on the right side of her face.”
Panettiere spoke more about the abuse she suffered in her memoir, previously saying to Us Weekly: “Getting an abusive person out of your life is like trying to rip a weed out that is so entangled into your life, and every time you pull it out another weed pops back up and you’re like, I thought I killed this.”
“They always manage to find a way to slither back in, even if you’re an incredibly strong-willed person," she admitted.
"What happened in Wyoming helped push me in the right direction, but it still took me a long time. I still struggled to fully put a kibosh to it for a while.”
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Just three days before Panettiere's death, Hickerson had his request to reduce his past felony charges denied.
Back in April 2021, he pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend after being arrested in Los Angeles and being hit with an eight-count criminal indictment.
These charges came from multiple incidents between May 2019 and January 2020, involving Panettiere.
In an Aug 13 hearing, the prosecution objected to both his motions to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor, as Page Six reported.
Hickerson was sentenced to 45 days in county jail back in 2021, as well as four years of formal probation, 52 mandatory domestic violence classes and a five-year restraining order.
Sources suggested that the former couple rekindled their relationship in the months before her death, but they kept it private to avoid public scrutiny.
