Heroes star Hayden Panettiere dies at 36

Hayden Panettiere's life has not been a smooth ride. This Monday, August 17, we learned of his death at the age of 36. “It is with deep sadness that we announce the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” her father, Skip Panettiere, told CBS News. “She was an incredible source of light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her – as well as to the millions who watched her on screen.” The causes of his death have not yet been revealed.

Child star, Hayden Panettiere quickly found herself in the bath of celebrity, just like her brother Jansen. The latter began his career in 2002 in The Stevens War, when he was 8 years old. But 20 years later, his life came to a tragic end. In 2023, he died of complications linked to an enlarged heart and an aortic valve condition.

Jansen Panettiere has notably played roles in Disney and Nickelodeon TV films such as A Father Unlike Any Other, alongside his sister, and The Last Day of Summer. He shared the screen again with Hayden Panettiere in 2012 in The Forger. In 2017, he produced and starred in Five Minutes with Mary, a short film about the attack on the Bataclan during the attacks of November 13, 2015. We also found him in an episode of The Walking Dead in 2019, the year of his latest project, the TV film How High 2.

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“I will never get over losing him.”

Hayden Panettiere was deeply upset by the death of her younger brother. More than a year after this tragic event, the actress agreed to speak to People magazine. “He was my only brother, and it was up to me to protect him,” she confided. “When I lost him, I felt like I had lost half of my soul.”

Followed by the paparazzi during Jansen's funeral, Hayden Panetierre remained traumatized. She told People that her agoraphobia, which she had had to fight against in the past, had resurfaced. She thus remained cloistered at home for a long time, her grief having consequences on her physical health. “I just blew up like a balloon,” she explained about her weight gain linked to stress and cortisol. “I no longer dared to get dressed or leave the house, but I also knew that I had to get out and keep moving, otherwise I would never stop feeling and looking like this,” she explained. “It has become a vicious, destructive cycle: am I feeling well enough to go out?”

In September 2024, Hayden Panettiere was still trying to learn to live with this loss. “When you experience an event of such magnitude, you really learn to choose your battles and not let yourself be disturbed by the little things,” she declared before adding that after this kind of tragic event, not much can “shake you.”

It is not certain that the actress, who had not hidden her long battle with drugs, alcohol and depression, would ever have managed to recover from the death of her brother. In 2024, she also said that she would “always be heartbroken”. “I will never get over it. No matter how many years pass, I will never get over his loss,” she added.

A duo with a tragic destiny.