Panettiere was pronounced dead at a South Carolina apartment Sunday, August 16. A cause of death has not been revealed, but an autopsy showed no signs of trauma. Toxicology reports are pending and could take up to 12 weeks, according to the Greenville County Coroner\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
An investigation is reportedly being conducted into Panettiere\u2019s death involving Greenville police as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after an incident report stated that her on-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson<\/a>, turned over a \u201cbag of medication\u201d to police. <\/p>\n On Thursday (20 August), the day before Panettiere\u2019s 37th birthday, his lawyer told TMZ: \u201cHayden\u2019s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed. As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play.\u201d<\/p>\n Panettiere was best-known for playing Sheryl Yoast in the 2000 Denzel Washington-led film Remember the Titans, high school cheerleader Claire Bennet on NBC\u2019s sci-fi drama Heroes (2006-2010), and aspiring country singer Juliette Barnes on the hit TV series Nashville (2012-2018).<\/p>\n Her New York Times bestselling memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, was published in May this year, in which she looked back at her childhood in Hollywood<\/a> and her experiences with addiction, postpartum depression (which she claimed cost her a sponsorship with skincare brand Neutrogena)<\/a>, abusive relationships, and the loss of custody of her daughter, Kaya,<\/a> whom she shares with former heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko.<\/p>\n Hayden Panettiere\u2019s on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson breaks silence<\/p>\n Brian Hickerson has broken his silence following Hayden Panettiere\u2019s death, issuing his first statement through his lawyer, Sloan Ellis.<\/p>\n \u201cHayden\u2019s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,\u201d Ellis said in a statement to TMZ. \u201cAs has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement added: \u201cOut of respect for Hayden\u2019s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Hickerson, who had an on-and-off relationship with Panettiere, was at the apartment when Panettiere was found unresponsive on Sunday, along with his brother Zach. He showed responding officers a bag of medication Panettiere had been taking, while authorities later said an autopsy found no signs of trauma.<\/p>\n The DEA has since joined the investigation, and Panettiere\u2019s cause and manner of death remain pending.<\/p>\n Hickerson also has a history of domestic violence against Panettiere and pleaded no contest to two felony charges involving her in 2021.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Shahana Yasmin21 August 2026 04:00<\/p>\n <\/a>Hayden Panettiere would have turned 37 today<\/p>\n Panettiere was days shy of her 37th birthday when she died Sunday.<\/p>\n A cause of death is still being investigated.<\/p>\n She leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, shared with her ex-fiance, Wladimir Klitschko.<\/p>\n Caitlin Hornik21 August 2026 14:12<\/p>\n <\/a>Hayden Panettiere’s ‘Nashville’ co-star pays tribute<\/p>\n \u201cHayden was a special soul and a very deep river. If she trusted you she was completely unguarded, genuinely curious, generous and a complete goof ball. Spending time with her was always an adventure,\u201d wrote Panettiere\u2019s Nashville co-star Judith Hoag in an Instagram post.<\/p>\n \u201cHayden deserved so much better than she got. She was on the road to recovery and whatever happened in the end\u2026 I know she\u2019s at peace now. <\/p>\n \u201cI dearly hope our soul paths cross again in the eternal by and by.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Caitlin Hornik21 August 2026 13:51<\/p>\n <\/a>Hayden Panettiere was a passionate advocate of Ukraine<\/p>\n Panettiere\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Panettiere posted repeated messages of solidarity with Ukraine on Instagram in the years that followed.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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!,\u201d she wrote on Instagram shortly after the invasion.<\/p>\n \u201cThis horrific moment in history sends a terrifying message: the message that in this day and age, in year 2022, it\u2019s okay to violate the rights of free people and allow autocrats like Putin to take whatever they please,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Jacob Stolworthy21 August 2026 13:08<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2018We made her feel unsupported\u2019: Neutrogena responds after Hayden Panettiere\u2019s death<\/p>\n Neutrogena has addressed criticism over its treatment of Hayden Panettiere, saying it understands that the actor felt \u201cunsupported\u201d during a difficult period in her life.<\/p>\n The skincare brand said in a statement on Thursday: \u201cWe are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere\u2019s passing. For more than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are proud to have partnered with her and understand that we made her feel unsupported during a very difficult time,\u201d it continued. \u201cThis is not what Neutrogena stands for or who we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Neutrogena vowed to make a \u201csignificant investment to a long-standing community health partner\u201d to support women\u2019s health causes and promised to share more details \u201cwhen plans are in place.\u201d<\/p>\n 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: \u201cOf all the things that they would fire me over, this is the last thing that I thought they would ever fire me for.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacob Stolworthy21 August 2026 12:47<\/p>\n <\/a>Hayden Panettiere’s younger brother died in 2023<\/p>\n Hayden Panettiere\u2019s younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, died in February 2023 at the age of 28 due to complications with his heart.<\/p>\n Jansen had an undiagnosed enlarged heart, as well as aortic valve complications.<\/p>\n 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Jacob Stolworthy21 August 2026 11:24<\/p>\n <\/a>Hayden Panettiere: ‘I think a lot about what my life could have been like if I did that film’<\/p>\n 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\u2019s home invasion thriller Panic Room after Nicole Kidman left the project, due to an injury. Or so she was told.<\/p>\n In fact, Fincher had wanted Panettiere to stay on with Jodie Foster, who was replacing Kidman. But he\u2019d asked her mother if Panettiere could cut her hair into a bob, in order to better match Foster. Panettiere\u2019s mother refused.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so out of the loop,\u201d Panettiere recalled in an interview with The Independent <\/a>in May. \u201cAnd it was one of the harder things that I\u2019ve experienced. I didn\u2019t 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?\u201d<\/p>\n She met Panic Room\u2019s eventual child star, Kristen Stewart, at a friend\u2019s birthday party days before the interview. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacob Stolworthy21 August 2026 10:49<\/p>\n <\/a>Hayden Panettiere’s cause of death remains unclear<\/p>\n Police in Greenville, South Carolina, said officers \u201cresponded to a report of an unresponsive female\u201d at around 1:50 pm ET on Sunday (August 16). She was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n A cause of death has not been revealed, but an autopsy showed no signs of trauma. An investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n Jacob Stolworthy21 August 2026 10:25<\/p>\n![\"Hayden](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/o4YTnVgg4-kwcsAt8PaL9YLi3EZjNulqBmsuwbxS7iSlFZzhpKk3J4I7MQH2hjTWK5PDAOENp5W_GNdmNlQCSi9ExL1dtUzzwn3L.jpeg\")
Hayden Panettiere would have turned 37 today (PA Archive)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1126598428...jpeg\")
(Getty)<\/p>\n