Scream queen Hayden Panettiere passed away on Sunday while visiting Greenville, South Carolina. She was just 36. We’re getting more details about the circumstances, including the fact that her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, and his brother, Zach, called 911. Brian showed first responders a bag of the medication that Hayden was on, but the list has been redacted from reports. In one of the last videos of Hayden, she was on crutches at the airport with Brian. She told TMZ’s paparazzo that she had “some pinched nerves in her lower back.” In an interview with Women’s Health published just three months ago, Hayden revealed that she was in recovery from a severe back injury and that she had been doing barre to rehabilitate. She was working with barre expert Marnie Alton of M/Body. Here’s what Hayden told Women’s Health about her injury and you can see that video below.
I’ve been dealing with an injury for the past year. Some nerve damage in my lower back and barre has really helped me recover from that.
She was paralyzed from the waist down
I quite literally woke up and felt nothing but pins and needles from my waist down. I wasn’t able to bend my toes, lift my foot at all. No one was able to give me a solid answer. It was
like that for so long. I was sitting there going, “Oh my gosh, am I going to be paralyzed for the rest of my life?” It was the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me physically for sure.She’s been injured on set
I was bucked off a zebra, had two vertebrae that were pushed into my neck. I had to learn how to figure skate so I was falling all the time. A lot of pulled muscles.
Hayden looks like she’s doing great in the video as she works out with Marnie, but you can tell that it’s challenging for her. Marie calls Hayden “one of the most determined, stubborn, hardworking people I know.” A friend of Hayden’s told Page Six this week that Hayden has been struggling with “really severe” pain. Recovery from chronic pain is not linear, and this is such a tragedy. I’m gutted for Hayden’s friends and family, but not her horrible narcissist mom. Of course Hayden’s mom, who refused to have a relationship with her after Hayden split ties with her professionally, has spoken to the press. She told NBC News that she thinks Hayden and her late brother, who passed in 2023 of a heart condition, are together again. That woman is detestable, but I hope she’s right.
Pay attention to the way Hayden Panettiere was walking in the final months before her death.
One morning, about a year ago, she woke up with a mysterious nerve injury that left her feeling only pins-and-needles/tingling from the waist down. pic.twitter.com/0RCvybDfv2
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) August 17, 2026
Photos credit: Avalon.red, Backgrid and Cover Images
Oh my heart, I know about chronic pain, numbness , horrible x100 pins and needles and not being able to move. It’s not easy, rip Hayden.
Same, and the frustration of trying to get a diagnosis.
When you’re addicted to opioids, you become extremely sensitive to pain, too. Even a relatively small amount can become debilitating.
I watched her podcast episode with Jay Shetty a few weeks ago and the way she talked reminded me of Jessica Simpson…it’s that slowed, somewhat flat speech of someone on something. Maybe medication but the puffiness of her face and sadness in her eyes made me think probably not. Not saying she was high in the interview, just that she might’ve been in a relatively good period but not fully over addiction. It’s sad to see these people who are so bright, alive, and present in their early 20s become something entirely different by middle age (not that 36 is middle age, but speaking generally).
Some drugs can inhibit B12 (especially methylcobalamin) and cause paralysis. Nitrous oxide is one of them. I believe certain foods can inhibit as well.
Its the first thing I think about when I hear sudden paralysis.are they getting enough vitamins.
I’m on three different prescriptions that affect B12 and it took a YEAR of me talking about being dizzy constantly for someone to check.
My level was 102 pmol/L, normal starts at 145 🙃
(I did 7 weeks of injections, and am now waiting on yet more bloodwork to figure out what to do next.)
Her chronic pain may her cause her to take more painkillers than she should have – its also possible that she may relapses into addiction as painkillers are the top prescription med that people become addicted to.
Her mother needs to STFU and I hope that abuser BF had nothing to do with it. I was reading that he once beat her so badly that she had to stay indoors for weeks to hide the damage.
I agree about the mother – the mother is desperately trying to blame the abuser BF. Even if he did have some involvement, her pain traces back to the mother/parents, and the mother has shown herself to be a vile person. That mom has some nerve blaming everyone else, including Hayden, for the fact that Hayden’s parents failed to protect her and likely prohibited from her early career.
Of course he had something to do with it. I feel fairly certain that drug charges, at minimum, will be brought against him and / or the brother.
She was such a light.
in that video she has a foot drop. multiple possible causes. doesn’t always get better. poor thing
Yeah, I recognize that gate. I walk like that. And you’re right, there’s multiple possible causes. I saw so many doctors & specialists & had so many tests. I know what it is now and what I have doesn’t get better, only worse. At least it only affects my walking.
During her book tour I thought she was taking steroids- her face/body shape changing quickly and the way she moved looked like something was happening physically. (I had to take them for inflammation and a back issue and I noticed it immediately) I guess it could be the relapse too. So f-*@! sad. She deserved so much better.
Back pain can be so sudden and debilitating – – the pain and unexpected loss of function can throw a person into deep depression. Then on top of all that, the opioid meds can be so disorienting. You’re maybe not in pain, or as much pain, when you are taking them, but you are zombified, is how I felt, they make you sleepy and forgetful and constipated and you can end up taking more than the prescribed dose because you forget you already took your dose. When your prescription runs out, not only are you back in pain, but you have the terrible headache and other symptoms of withdrawal. It’s so easy to become dependent. Getting into physical therapy is the real key for so many aches and pains for me and that and Pilates are how I ultimately overcame several severe spinal issues. I feel so bad for her. This sounds like an unintended outcome of dealing with pain.
This weighs so heavy… I was really rooting for her. So very sad.
Jesus, it keeps getting worse and worse. This poor woman!!!!! It’s so unbearably sad. Her mother and boyfriend can share a lot of the blame, I’m guessing. Hayden had no one to truly love and protect her.