Hayden Panettiere’s ex Brian Hickerson shared a horrifying story from their rocky relationship and admitted he was abusive towards her.
Panettiere and Hickerson dated on and off from 2018 to 2022, but their relationship soured and deteriorated due to multiple domestic violence incidents and arrests.
Hickerson spoke to TMZ about Panettile’s upcoming memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning. In it, she writes about domestic violence in their relationship.
Hickerson said there were certain incidents she didn’t want included in her book, but she included them anyway.
“There’s a story where I was drunk and Hayden was standing across the room and I had the phone in my hand and I said, ‘Hayden, before you throw me the phone, I’m going to run as fast as I can for 10 seconds,'” he recalled.
“Who wants to read something about themselves?” He admitted that he had read her memoir. “But you have to be vulnerable, and I did that. I did that, so.”
Hickerson said he missed Panettiere “every day” and said he “of course” considered getting back together with her.
“Drugs, alcohol, we went to some very dark places,” he recalled of their time together. “Oh my God, Almighty. She’s 5 feet 2 inches tall on paper and 4 feet 11 inches tall in real life. I mean, come on.”
In April 2021, Hickerson was sentenced to 45 days in county jail after pleading no contest to two felony counts of injury to a spouse or girlfriend. He was also sentenced to four years’ probation, ordered to attend 52 domestic violence classes, and given a five-year restraining order barring him from coming near Panettile.
The 36-year-old “Nashville” alum spoke about revisiting her abusive relationship with Hickerson in her memoir, telling Us Weekly that it was “brutal, traumatic, and emotional.”
“It was important for me to properly put that experience into words,” she said.
She added: “This is a very embarrassing story. I’ve always thought of myself as a very resilient, strong woman. The idea that I could allow something like this to happen to me blew my mind. It surprised the hearts of those who knew me best.”
