Actress Hayden Panettiere spoke candidly about the deep sorrow and challenges of losing her brother, Jansen Panettiere, just three months before her own death at age 36. In a May appearance on Jay Shetty's "On Purpose" podcast, Panettiere described her brother's death as losing "my other half" and expressed the profound heartbreak of not being able to "protect" him.
Jansen Panettiere died in February 2023 at age 28 from an undiagnosed heart condition. He had also struggled with addiction. Hayden Panettiere shared that the grief was ongoing, stating in the podcast that she was still processing his death three years later and that the heartbreak had evolved over time.
"I collapsed and it stayed with me," she said. "The time is the best healer, generally, but it’s been three years and every year it’s changed. The heartbreak has changed. But losing him and realizing how much of life I was gonna have to go through alone and without him."
She recalled thinking "I don’t wanna live in a world" without her brother and felt he would always be a presence in her life. Panettiere wrote about her brother's death in her memoir, "This is Me: A Reckoning," released in May. She described the moment she learned of his passing from her father and the immediate grief that followed.
In her memoir, Panettiere referred to Jansen as "the heartbeat of my life, always right there, in the center of who I am." She concluded the book with a tribute to him, thanking him for his friendship and for keeping her grounded.
Her last public tribute to Jansen was on Instagram in September 2025, where she would have celebrated his 31st birthday. She called him a "remarkable human being" who was "wise beyond his years and operated at a higher spiritual level than anyone I’ve ever met."
Hayden Panettiere was found unresponsive in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday. According to 911 audio obtained by Page Six, responders attempted resuscitation after the female was found in "cardiac arrest."
Her father confirmed her passing, stating, "She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen."
Authorities reported no signs of foul play and no signs of trauma on autopsy. The Greenville County Coroner's Office confirmed these findings. Panettiere had previously battled postpartum depression and substance abuse. She had traveled to South Carolina from Los Angeles with her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, the day before her death.