When Hayden Panettiere died this Sunday, the 36-year-old Heroes and Nashville star was in South Carolina with an on-and-off boyfriend she’d once described as her “abuser.”

Panettiere first started dating Brian Hickerson, an aspiring actor and real estate agent, in 2018. At the time, she had recently broken up with heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, who is the father of her daughter, Kaya.

In the early days of their courtship, Panettiere and Hickerson were photographed by paparazzi in Los Angeles attending film screenings and eating brunch with friends.

However, by the following year their relationship had taken a dark turn. On May 2, 2019, according to Los Angeles County criminal court records, Hickerson was arrested on allegations of injuring a spouse or girlfriend. The alleged incident occurred at their home after a night of drinking, and Hickerson was subsequently ordered not to contact Panettiere and to stay at least 100 yards away from her.

That case was eventually dismissed, and the couple reunited only for another alleged violent incident to occur in Wyoming on Valentine’s Day 2020, when Hickerson was arrested once again. Later that year, prosecutors in Los Angeles charged him with four counts of injuring a spouse or cohabitant, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of dissuading a witness and one misdemeanor battery count, all linked to alleged incidents involving Panettiere between 2019 and 2020.

In July 2020, Panettiere spoke out about the way she had been treated. In a statement posted on Twitter (now X), she shared the number for a domestic abuse hotline online and wrote: “I am coming forward with the truth about what happened to me with the hope that my story will empower others in abusive relationships to get the help they need and deserve. I am prepared to do my part to make sure this man never hurts anyone again.”

Less than a year later, in April 2021, Hickerson pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend and was sentenced to 45 days in jail, four years of probation and 52 domestic violence classes.

However, the couple later rekindled their relationship once again. In April 2023, in the write-up of an interview with the New York Times, a journalist noted that Hickerson was “walking around, vacuuming and shooting a basketball through the hoop in her living area” during their meeting.

Panettiere admitted at the time that “there are feelings” between the pair, and that Hickerson had got sober and their relationship was “contingent on him continuing on this road of recovery.”

She added: “He knows he deserved what happened to him. I did not do any of this lightly.”

In May 2026, Panettiere, who was open about her own struggles with opioid addiction, published her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning and reflected further on what her relationship with Hickerson had put her through.

She wrote that she never wanted to become a “spokesperson for domestic violence,” adding: “I never wanted to call myself a victim, but here I am. It’s part of my story whether I want it to be or not.”

In the book, Panettiere wrote that Hickerson beat her so badly on one occasion that she did not leave the house for weeks, and that she hesitated to report the alleged abuse to police out of concern that the public would find out.

When Panettiere was interviewed by The Independent that month, she said she was single. Her representatives stated that she and Hickerson were no longer in contact with one another, despite being photographed together a couple of months prior.

When Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, heard about her daughter’s death, she thought of Hickerson immediately. “This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson,” she told NBC News.

According to a police incident report, Brian and his brother Zach Hickerson called 911 when Panettiere was dying. Officers recorded that Zach was emotional as emergency services worked to save Panettiere’s life, but that Brian only became emotional after she was officially declared dead. The report also stated that Brian turned over a “bag of medication” belonging to Panettiere to investigators.

A cause of death has not been revealed, but an autopsy showed no signs of trauma.

In June, Panettiere shared a journal entry she had written reflecting on their relationship on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast.

“I realized that I was more afraid of being alone than being abused,” she said. “In order to be around that behavior, it took me dulling my senses and numbing myself with substances in order to silence that rational voice in my head that was telling me exactly what was going on, and the many reasons why I needed to get myself out of this toxic relationship and as far away from this person as possible.”

Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk. If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673)