NYT Details Hayden Panettiere's Pain at 36 as Ex Brian Hickerson Was Barred in May
Updated
Updated · Deadline · Aug 24
NYT Details Hayden Panettiere's Pain at 36 as Ex Brian Hickerson Was Barred in May
3 articles · Updated · Deadline · Aug 24
Summary
The New York Times reported Panettiere suffered severe “pins and needles” pain in her legs and ordered security at a May Barnes & Noble event in Manhattan to keep ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson away.
Her mother, Lesley Vogel, said Panettiere was in Los Angeles a year earlier unable to function properly or walk normally, prompting visits to doctors and an acupuncturist.
Hickerson was present when Panettiere, 36, was found dead Aug. 16 in a Greenville, South Carolina, apartment; police said no foul play was initially suspected and an early autopsy found no trauma.
Panettiere’s May memoir described Hickerson as violent, with the abuse leading to three arrests and jail time, while also recounting her long struggles with depression, addiction and early exposure to “happy pills.”
Melissa Gilbert cited Panettiere’s death alongside Michelle Trachtenberg and Daveigh Chase in a call for stronger protections for child actors, widening attention beyond the immediate death investigation.