Hayden Panettiere is still mourning the death of her younger brother, Jansen Panettiere.
“Two years ago today, I lost my little brother. This amazing human being touched the lives of so many. Especially mine,” Hayden, 35, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, February 19. “The pain isn’t quantifiable.”
She added, “I pray you’re in a beautiful place. J. That you’re at peace and that when all is said and done. I’ll see you again. Rest easy brother. You are so missed and beyond loved 💜.”
Jansen, a child actor who costarred with Hayden in Tiger Cruise and Racing Stripes, died in February 2023 at age 28 from aortic valve complications from an enlarged heart.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images Hayden Panettiere opened up about how her brother Jansen Panettiere‘s death caused her body to change. “I just ballooned out,” Hayden, 35, told People on Wednesday, September 18, about rapid weight gain she experienced from the “stress and cortisol” going through her body. “I didn’t feel confident to put on […]
“Jansen’s heart could be seen in his eyes, and his charm in his brilliant, engaging smile; his soul in his masterful and revealing paintings, and the joy of life in his dry wit,” Hayden and her parents said in a statement at the time. “His charisma, warmth, compassion for others, and his creative spirit will live forever in our hearts and in the hearts of all whom he encountered.”
The next month, Hayden told Good Morning America that her sibling was “right here with” her in a TV interview. She has since been candid about how Jansen’s passing has affected her.
“He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him,” she told People in September 2024. “When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul.”
Hayden continued, “When something that massive has happened to you, you really learn to pick your fights and just not let the little things upset you. Because once something so horrific, so deep, so catastrophic happens in your life, there’s not much that can really rock you.”
Hayden Panettiere is honoring her late brother, Jansen Panettiere, on the first anniversary of his death. The Scream 6 actress, 34, paid tribute to her brother with a touching Instagram message on Monday, February 19. “Today is the 1 year anniversary of my little brother’s passing,” she wrote alongside a photo of the siblings petting […]
According to Hayden, she would “always be heartbroken” over losing her brother.
“I will never be able to get over it,” the Nashville alum concluded. “No matter how many years go by, I will never get over his loss.”
Hayden had navigated her immediate grief out of the public eye, later telling People that her body physically changed as a result.
“I just ballooned out. I didn’t feel confident to put on clothes and get out of the house, but I also knew that I needed to get out and keep moving or I’d never stop looking and feeling this way,” she recalled, noting walks with her trainer soon became a therapy session. “My body just started reacting, not just from the working out. It allowed me to release the stress, the high expectations I’d always put on myself.”
In addition to Hayden, Jansen is survived by the siblings’ parents and his niece, Kaya. (Hayden shares her only child with ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko.)
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