There were many people in Hayden Panettiere’s life who loved her, but a new report has suggested that her ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson found his way back into her life without the “Nashville” actress’s closest circle finding out about it.
Brian Hickerson Comes Back Into Hayden Panettiere’s Life
The reunion between Panettiere and Hickerson happened shortly before her death. A source told Us Weekly that Hickerson contacted Panettiere again, asking to sleep on her couch. Police reports show that Brian was at the same apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina, as Panettiere when first responders arrived. His brother, Zach Hickerson, found her and alerted authorities.
“Brian was with her at the time of her death,” a source told Us Weekly on Wednesday, August 18. “He had inserted himself into her life and was surveilling her.” The source continued, “All was well up until a week ago when she went kind of silent, and then she passed away. She had a lot to live for; she had plans to go on a girls’ trip. She was going to see her daughter in Europe. But [in] the last week, things had changed and Brian had inserted himself into her life.”
Another source told Us Weekly that the former child star’s friends were concerned that Hickerson was back in her life. “That relationship and association had led her down a dark path in the past, so her friends and inner circle were worried for her. There were concerns, and her friends really hoped she was doing OK,” the source said. But how much did Panettiere’s friends really know?
Did Hayden Panettiere’s Friends Know She Had Reconnected With Her Ex-BF?
A source told Page Six on Tuesday, August 18, that the “Heroes” star’s friends knew something was up, but they did not know what it was. “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,” the source said.
They continued, “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.”
Hayden Panettiere & Brian Hickerson’s Tumultuous Relationship
Panettiere and Hickerson had a tumultuous relationship before her death on Sunday, August 16. She was just 36 and leaves behind her preteen daughter, Kaya; her mother, Lesley Vogel; her father, Skip Panettiere; and close friends and fans who loved her dearly.
Gayle King has criticized Vogel on “CBS Mornings” for a statement she made to NBC News about her daughter on Tuesday, August 18. She used negative wording, describing Panettiere as someone who found “the wrong path” and “sadly lost her way.”
Vogel also discussed Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend. “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,” she said. “There is a lot of history in the past that Brian has enabled Hayden many times, and this is why her father and I had been concerned for a long time about him.”
