‘Makes Me So Angry’: Hayden Panettiere opened up about brother’s death 3 months before her own
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Actress Hayden Panettiere’s passing has come as a major shock to the entertainment industry. The 'Nashville' actress died at the age of 36. Now, a video of her talking about her late brother, Jansen Panettiere, has resurfaced.
Just three months ago, Panettiere spoke about her 28-year-old brother during Jay Shetty’s podcast. Now that she is gone, her emotional conversation about Jansen is resurfacing.
Hayden Panettiere spoke about her brother Jansen's death
In May 2026, Panettiere appeared on Shetty’s podcast, 'On Purpose with Jay Shetty', to promote her memoir, 'I’m Just Me: A Reckoning'. Shetty said, “You lost your brother three years ago, and you described him in the book as ‘the heartbreak of my life,’ who was always right there in the center.”
“How did losing him change the way you see all of this?” he asked.
She answered, “Oh yeah. There was nothing in my life that feels like losing my other half.” "It makes me so angry to see that bad people are thriving in the world and then someone good is taken from you."
She continued, “The other half that was born to be the yin to my yang. We were so close, and being the older sibling, your job is to protect them and keep them safe, and not being able to do that is heartbreaking and hard to cover.”
“I would need a dictionary to go through all the words for my feelings and what, you know, goes through your mind.” “The heartbreak has changed me, losing him and realizing how much of my life I would have to go through alone and without him, when I always saw him as being there for me.”
She called him her “best friend” and said she always wanted to give him a call and give him updates about her life. She said, “I don’t want to live in this world where he isn’t there.”
Hayden Panettiere's family mourns her death
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her - and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” her father said in a statement.
Panettiere was known for her role in 'One Life to Live'. She continued her television work in 1996, starting with CBS’ 'Guiding Light' and later returning to the show from 1997 to 2000. She then went on to provide the voice of Princess Dot in Pixar’s 'A Bug’s Life' (1998) and starred in 'Remember the Titans' (2000).
