Hayden Panettiere, the 36-year-old actress recognized for her roles in "Heroes" and "Nashville," had previously spoken about the profound grief she experienced following the death of her younger brother, Jansen.
Panettiere described Jansen's passing at the age of 28 as the "biggest heartbreak" of her life. She shared these sentiments in an interview with Jay Shetty, recounting the intense emotional impact of losing her brother just three years before her own recent death.
"There's nothing in my life that feels like losing my other half. He was born to be the yin to my yang," Panettiere said, holding back tears. As the older sibling, she expressed the burden of feeling responsible for her brother's safety, stating, "especially being the older sibling who it's your job to protect them and keep them safe, and not being able to is... I mean heartbreaking doesn't even begin to cover it."
Jansen Panettiere, who was also a child actor, died in his New York apartment at 28. His death was attributed to complications from an enlarged heart. He was found unresponsive in a chair.
"I would need a dictionary to go through all the words for all the feelings that you go through in your mind," Hayden Panettiere recounted. "I know time is the best healer, but it's been three years and every year the heartbreak has changed. But losing him and realizing how much of life I was going to have to go through alone and without him, where I always saw him as being there."
She reflected on the future challenges she would face without her brother, including her own parents' eventual passing and the absence of Jansen from her daughter's life. "There's been so many times I want to call him all the time. He was my best friend and when he first died I remember screaming, 'I don't want to live in a world where he doesn't exist.'"
Panettiere's representatives announced her death on Sunday. The cause of her death was not immediately clear. She is remembered by those who knew her as "an incredible light."