Hayden Panettiere Had a 'Dark' Secret She Wasn't Sharing With Friends Before Her Death
Hayden Panettiere‘s final months were far more complicated than many of her friends realized, as the actress was reportedly keeping a significant relationship under wraps before her sudden death at 36.
Her troubled partnership with Brian Hickerson is a crucial detail the Nashville star reportedly kept her friends “in the dark” about, after years of a complicated on-again, off-again situation, according to Page Six. The couple dated officially from 2018 to 2022.
“If Brian was back in her life, then it was something she was hiding because she wasn’t speaking about it with many of her friends,” an insider claimed. “If you’ve gone through some dark times with people, and spoken about it, then there can be shame if you get back together with that same person. So maybe that was why she hadn’t mentioned it to us.”
Yet another source told TMZ that Panettiere and Hickerson were forced to keep their rekindled romance under wraps while she promoted her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, earlier this year. Her team reportedly felt that Hickerson was “bad for business” since certain chapters were about the abusive relationship that resulted in several arrests and his open admission.
In a May interview with TMZ, Hickerson revealed that he asked Panettiere to exclude one particular domestic dispute in her book — but she kept it in.
“There’s a story where I was drunk, right? Hayden was standing across the room, and I had a phone in my hand, and I said, ‘Hayden, I’ll give you 10 seconds to run as fast as you can before I throw it at you,’” he recalled to the media outlet.
“Who wants to read something about themselves, right?” he continued. “But you gotta be vulnerable, and I did it. I did it, so.”
Her long-term ties to Hickerson are complicated, and she didn’t hide from that truth. After one incident in 2021, she openly discussed the situation with her Instagram followers.
“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,” Panettiere wrote.
“I am prepared to do my part to make sure this man never hurts anyone again. I’m grateful for my support system, which helped me find the courage to regain my voice and my life,” she added.
Panettiere died on August 16 in Greenville, South Carolina. Her death is being investigated as a possible “overdose,” and police do not suspect foul play.
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