Celebrity
Who Is Hayden Panettiere’s On-again, Off-again Boyfriend Brian Hickerson?
Hayden Panettiere was visiting her on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, when she was found dead inside a South Carolina home on August 16, 2026. He was reportedly with the actress when she died, aged just 36.
Hickerson is originally from South Carolina, where his family still resides. He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in business, management and marketing. He moved to LA to become an actor, although he never broke through in the industry. He also worked in real estate development and per his LinkedIn, he is an executive assistant for a “high-profile confidential client”.
The pair first became romantically linked in 2018, and their relationship was marked by violent ups and downs. In May 2019, he was arrested for domestic violence. He was drinking with the Heroes actress in Hollywood the night before the physical altercation in their home.
After police interviewed the couple, they took Hickerson into custody for felony domestic violence for allegedly starting the fight. He was charged with felony domestic violence later that month and ordered to stay 100 yards from the Nashville star. The case was ultimately dismissed.
In February 2020, he was arrested on Valentine’s Day after the couple got into a fight in which he allegedly struck her “with a closed fist on the right side of her face.” Hickerson was later released on a $5,000 bond. She gained a restraining order against him in July of the same year.
Panettiere issued a statement following his 2020 arrest. “I am coming forward with the truth about what happened to me in the hope that my story will empower others in abusive relationships to get the help they need and deserve,” she said. “I am prepared to do my part to make sure this man never hurts anyone again.”
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Hickerson was ultimately arrested again in Los Angeles with an eight-count criminal indictment with charges stemming from a series of abusive incidents between May 2019 and January 2020.
In April 2021, he accepted a plea deal and pleaded no contest to two felony counts. A judge sentenced Hickson t0 45 days in county jail, four years of formal probation, 52 mandatory domestic violence classes, and a five-year restraining order.
In May 2022, paps caught the pair fighting outside an LA bar after they got back together. They allegedly split for good soon after.
“Dating Brian was toxic for Hayden on many levels,” a source told Radar around the time of their split. “She began to see how her relationship had turned her life upside down.”
She told People that they had reconnected as friends but described his behavior as: “none of its OK” but she was willing to open her life up to people “willing to get help and make amends.” She revealed he had undergone “treatment and done his time.”
“And I’m trying to live in a place of forgiveness,” she added.
In her 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere was candid about the abuse Hickerson put her through. She shockingly writes how he allegedly slammed her head into a wall and beat her face so badly that she could not leave the house for weeks.
“I went into such a dark place, man, drugs, alcohol,” he recalled of their time together. “Good God, almighty, she’s 5-foot-2 on paper, 4-foot-11 in real life. I mean, come on.”
The pair sparked reconciliation rumors in March after being spotted at LAX together. According to a source that spoke to Page Six, her friends hadn’t known about Hayden and Brian’s reunion.
“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,” the insider explained. “So maybe that was why she hadn’t mentioned it to us.”
