Hayden Panettiere is opening up about how the loss of her brother Jansen impacted her both mentally and physically, to the point she became agoraphobic.
On a Sunday in February 2023, things drastically changed for actress Hayden Panettiere: her younger brother and fellow actor, Jansen Panettiere, was found dead in his New York apartment. He was only 28.
The family would later reveal he’d died from cardiomegaly (an enlarged heart), coupled with aortic valve complications.
Now, the “Bring It On: All or Nothing” actress is opening up for the first time about the loss of Jansen, revealing how his death impacted her not only mentally, but physically.
“He was my only sibling, and he was my younger sibling and it was my job to protect him”, Panettiere told People magazine for their new cover story. “When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul.”
“I remember saying to somebody — and it hadn’t even been a year — and I was like, ‘Don’t ever, ever expect me to get over the loss of him.’ Because, no matter how many years go by, he will always be beside me.
“I will always be heartbroken about it. I’ll never be able to get over it”, Panettiere, now 35, said.
“Time does heal things, but time can also make you think differently and ask different questions and wonder different things and realize different things that you wish you’d never realized”, she explained.
