Watch: Brian Hickerson Was With Hayden Panettiere When She Died: Police Report
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 Hickerson were 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.
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 jail for a 2020 assault on the her, Panettiere told the New York Times in 2023, “There are feelings there, yes.”
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But the Ice Princess actress—mom to 11-year-old daughter Kaya with 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.
Photo by Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Photo by Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage
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Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images
Photo by M. Caulfield/WireImage for ABC Cable Networks Group
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage
Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic
Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images
Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Time Warner Cable
Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images
Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Roy Rochlin/FilmMagic
Hayden Panettiere/Twitter
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
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Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Jeff Neira/Disney via Getty Images
