In 2023, actress Hayden Panettiere suffered the unimaginable loss of her younger brother Jansen Panettiere. He was 28 year's old.
His cause of death was later attributed to an enlarged heart, a condition that often goes undiagnosed and can lead to sudden cardiac events.
"He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him," the actress said in a new interview with People Magazine. "When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul."
"When something that massive has happened to you, you really learn to pick your fights and just not let the little things upset you," she told the publication. "Because once something so horrific, so deep, so catastrophic happens in your life, there's not much that can really rock you."
"I will always be heartbroken about it. I will never be able to get over it," she said. "No matter how many years go by, I will never get over his loss."
Panettiere also discussed the difficulty of being photographed by paparazzi at her brother's funeral, and how this experience heightened her agoraphobia [anxiety about being in public places].
Elsewhere in the interview, Panettiere opened up about her daughter, who now lives in Europe with her father Wladimir Klitschko.
When the former couple split in 2018, Klitschko gained full custody with Kaya living with him in the Ukraine. At the time, Panettiere was struggling with alcohol abuse and addiction.
On Red Table Talk in 2022, she opened up about her addiction and pinpointed her first experience with drugs at a premiere for the hit series Heroes. Someone gave her a 'happy pill' to stay alert while doing a red carpet. She was 16.
The actress struggled with addiction in the years that followed. In 2020, Panettiere underwent both trauma therapy and inpatient treatment and became sober.
Though her daughter lives with her father, Panettiere is still involved in her life.
"She's beautiful, she came out just like me," she told People.
Accompanying the new article, People shared a 13 minute video from their interview. Within minutes of the video being shared across social media, fans began calling for the clips to be removed.
Fans have labelled the filmed interview 'sad' and 'uncomfortable,' with some going so far as to say it was 'exploitative.'
Comments have requested the video be removed, while others have questioned why it was shared in the first place.
"People Magazine got no business posting this," one of the top comments on YouTube reads.
"Hey, you should remove this. This isn't fodder for gossip, this is sad and exploitative," wrote one user on Instagram.
"Remove the video interview. This is beyond inappropriate," added another.
"People Magazine should be ashamed," says another on TikTok.
"Shame on whoever made the decision to do this interview and put this out for people to see. Taking advantage of a sick person," wrote another.
There were many comments claiming Panettiere appeared to be under the influence in the video. Among the top concerns, fans worried People Magazine were "doing further harm" to her image or taking advantage of her grief by releasing the filmed interview.
Panettiere's rep has spoken to Page Six on behalf of the actress following the backlash, saying that "speaking about her brother for the first time was very emotional for her — and it had been a long and exhausting day for her. She was not under the influence."
They further told the publication that Panettiere "fully cooperated" with the video shoot and had her team on set for the entirety of filming.
Feature Image: Getty.
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