Hayden Panettiere details Brian Hickerson abuse ahead of memoir
Hayden Panettiere says her relationship with brian hickerson was humiliating and abusive, and she is now revisiting it ahead of the release of her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning. The actress said the experience stayed private for years, even as Hickerson’s 2019 and 2020 arrests turned the case into a public legal matter.
Panettiere on the abuse
“It’s a very embarrassing subject,” Panettiere said as she reflected on the relationship for the memoir rollout. She said, “I’ve always seen myself as such a resilient and strong woman, that the idea that I could allow something like this to happen to me, it blew my mind,” and added that it “blew the minds of the people that knew me best.”
Panettiere said she kept the experience to herself as much as possible because she did not want to emotionally drag her parents and brother Jansen into the situation. “It was humiliating. It was embarrassing, so I didn’t want anyone to know. I wanted people to know as little as possible,” she said.
2019 and 2020 arrests
Hickerson was first romantically linked to Panettiere in 2018, then arrested in 2019 after an alleged domestic violence incident with her. He was charged with felony domestic violence and ordered to stay away from Panettiere before the charges were later dropped.
He was arrested again in 2020 after another domestic violence altercation with Panettiere. After that arrest, Hickerson served 33 days in prison, was placed on four years probation, and was ordered to pay a $500 fine.
This Is Me: A Reckoning
Panettiere and Hickerson broke up for good after the second arrest, and she said the split took time to fully settle. “Getting an abusive person out of your life is like trying to rip a weed out that is so entangled into your life,” she said, adding that she “struggled to fully put a kibosh” on the relationship “for a long time.”
She described the memoir chapter on the abuse as “brutal, it was traumatic, it was emotional,” which makes the book more than a celebrity confession: it is the first full public account of a relationship that already produced felony charges, jail time, probation and a fine. This Is Me: A Reckoning is scheduled for release on Tuesday, May 19.
