Hayden Panettiere’s body ‘found by boyfriend Brian Hickerson’s brother’

The circumstances around Hayden Panettiere’s death at aged 36 are still unclear but new reports say she was found by her boyfriend’s brother.

It’s believed that her on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson was at the apartment where Panettiere took her last breaths.

A source has now claimed that he was asleep in the bedroom at the time, while his brother, Zach, was the one to discover the actress.

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Best known for her roles in Heroes and Nashville, a representative confirmed the actress’ death on Monday, saying her family would remember her as an ‘incredible light’.

First responders had been called out to attend a woman suffering from ‘cardiac arrest’ with reports that the star had suffered an ‘overdose’.

The update comes hours after her estranged mum Lesley Vogel spoke out for the first time since her daughter’s death, revealing the family had been trying to ‘get rid’ of Hickerson.

‘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,’ Vogel told NBC News.

Panettiere had been acting from an incredibly early age, booking her first commercials at just 11 months old, before moving to TV and film at four.

Vogel claimed that Hickerson had ‘enabled’ Panettiere in the past so the family had been concerned about their relationship for a long time.

She claimed she had known they were still together, despite the pair publicly distancing themselves, something that was echoed by a TMZ source.

A source claimed the couple were still together privately even when publicly Panettiere had distanced herself from him, on the advice of her team.

In 2023, Hayden’s brother, Jansen Panettiere, died suddenly aged 28 from cardiomegaly (enlarged heart), coupled with aortic valve complications.

It was previously reported that Hickerson had a request for his past felony domestic violence charges to be reduced or expunged by a judge three days before her death.

But the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to Page Six that Judge Olivia Rosales denied the request.

Panettiere had spoken out against Hickerson after his arrest in 2020, saying she wanted to ’empower others in abusive relationships’.

‘The cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies.’