An attorney for Hayden Panettiere‘s on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson is speaking out in the wake of her death.
Daysafter the Heroes alum died on Aug. 16 at age 36, a lawyer for Brian—who police said was at the South Carolina apartment complex where Panettiere was found unresponsive—addressed the details surrounding her passing.
“Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,” his attorney Sloan Ellis told TMZ in a statement Aug. 20. “As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play. Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.”
In a Greenville Police Department report obtained E! News, authorities said Brian and his brother Zach Hickersonwere on scene as authorities responded to Panettiere experiencing cardiac arrest. The siblings confirmed to police that they were the ones who called 911, while Zach referred to Panettiere as “his brother’s girlfriend.”
Though Zach was “very emotional” as EMS workers performed administered CPR on Panettiere, the report stated that Brian “did not become emotional” until the Nashville star was pronounced dead just after 2:30 p.m.
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Hayden Panettiere’s Mom Breaks Silence on Death, Says Family Was “Trying to Get Rid” of Brian Hickerson
Brian—who had traveled South Carolina with Panettiere one day before her death—later provided emergency responders with a “bag of medication” she was taking at the time, according to the report.
Two months before her death, Panettiere told E! News she was single and open to the “right person” entering her orbit.
“The door is not closed,” she said at the time. “I love to be in love.”
When it came to her relationship with Brian, who served a month in jailfor a 2020 assault on the her, Panettiere told the New York Times in 2023, “There are feelings there, yes.”
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But theIce Princessactress—mom to 11-year-old daughter Kayawith ex Wladimir Klitschko—was firm that any romance with Brian was “contingent on him continuing this road of recovery.”
As she put of welcoming him back into her life, “I did not do any of this lightly.”
For a look back at Panettiere’s life in photos, read on.
