New details shed light on the circumstances of the death of actress and singer Hayden Panettiere at the age of 36 in Greenville, South Carolina. As Zach Hickerson recounted to TMZ, the brother of Brian Hickerson, the actress's partner, the incident took place on Sunday at noon. Not receiving a response to their messages for a planned meal, Zach went to the temporary accommodation where they were staying.
After calling insistently, he woke Brian up in the living room, and they both discovered that the actress was unresponsive. Following the 911 instructions, Brian administered Narcan (naloxone) and they both performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers until the firefighters and paramedics arrived, who certified her death due to cardiac arrest at 2:32 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Greenville County Coroner's Office issued a preliminary statement ruling out any signs of violence or external trauma, specifying that the official cause of death is pending toxicological studies and additional analysis.
Raised in Palisades, New York, Panettiere began her career as a child star in productions such as Ally McBeal and Malcolm in the Middle. She gained international recognition for her role as Claire Bennet in the series Heroes (2006-2010) and solidified her artistic status by starring for six seasons in Nashville (2012-2018), a performance that earned her two Golden Globe nominations. On the big screen, she was part of films like Remember the Titans, Raising Helen, Ice Princess, and Scream 4.
On a personal level, the actress openly shared in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning and in various interviews her battle with postpartum depression and alcoholism.
A mother to a daughter, Kaya, born in 2014 from her relationship with former boxer Vladimir Klitschko, her family life was recently marked by the sudden death in 2023 of her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, due to a heart condition.