Brian Hickerson’s sister Ashley has broken her silence on Hayden Panettiere, calling the actress’s death a “massive tragedy” in an interview published on Monday, 24 August 2026.
Ashley Hickerson stepped forward eight days after Panettiere died at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, at the age of 36, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Swisher Post reported at the time that the actress died on Sunday, 16 August 2026, in a sudden passing that stunned her fanbase.
A police report has since confirmed that Brian Hickerson, the actress’s on-off partner, and his brother Zach Hickerson were with Panettiere when she died. That detail placed both brothers at the scene and shifted attention onto the family.
Brian Hickerson’s sister on losing Hayden Panettiere
Until that interview appeared, nobody connected to Brian Hickerson had spoken publicly about the death, which left the online conversation to fill the gap on its own.
Ashley’s decision to talk gave readers the first firsthand voice from inside the family at the centre of it.
Ashley did not dress up her reaction. She said the grief had landed on her side of the family too, not only on the friends and fans who filled social media with tributes in the days after news of Panettiere’s death broke.
Ashley Hickerson said:
“My family is really feeling this loss as well.”
She also spoke about the siblings’ father, David Hickerson, who she said was “devastated” and had taken the news “pretty hard”. Ashley’s account remains the only public word from inside the Hickerson household about how the family has processed the days since.
Why Panettiere kept going back to Brian Hickerson
The question hanging over the relationship was always why Panettiere returned to a man whose history with her included an arrest. Ashley offered an answer that was less about excuses and more about personality, pointing to a pull she said her brother had on almost everyone he met. Ashley Hickerson said of Brian:
“If I can say one thing about Brian, it’s that he is the most charismatic person and he draws you in.”
Panettiere and Brian Hickerson started dating in 2018 and split in 2020 after a domestic violence incident that led to his arrest.
He pleaded no contest to felony charges and was sentenced to 45 days in jail, and the pair later drifted back into each other’s orbit.
What happens next in the Hayden Panettiere story
Onscreen, Panettiere was best known for playing Claire Bennet in Heroes and Juliette Barnes in Nashville, two roles that carried her from teenage stardom into adult television and kept her career public property for most of her life.
The next beat sits with the police report, which so far confirms only who was inside the residence.
Until more of it surfaces, Ashley Hickerson’s interview stands as the single account from her family, and it reads as a portrait of grief rather than an explanation of what happened in Greenville.
