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Hayden Panettiere Says She Developed Extreme Agoraphobia & Weight Gain Following Brother's Sudden Death

Hayden Panettiere Brother Death People Interview

Hayden Panettiere is opening up about all she’s had to deal with both mentally and physically since the death of her beloved brother Jansen.

The longtime movie star had been battling drug and alcohol addiction for years leading into 2023, and eventually got clean and sober from that. She was also back to work on set, having had a major role on Scream 6. But just a few weeks before that film was set to premiere in February of that year, her brother died unexpectedly due to an undiagnosed heart condition. He was only 28 years old. And the death immediately shattered the former child star’s whole world.

Related: Hayden Panettiere Says Nashville Was Traumatic As Storylines Eerily Mirrored Her Life!

Now, speaking to People, Hayden recounted just how awful her life became following Jansen’s terribly untimely death:

“He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him. When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul.”

Things quickly got worse for the 35-year-old star, who became fearful of leaving the house after she was followed by paparazzi photographers in the days after Jansen’s death — and then again at his funeral. She explained:

“I had to see horrific paparazzi pictures of myself coming out of Jansen’s funeral, which happened in a very private place, and it was shocking. My agoraphobia came out, which is something I’ve struggled with in the past.”

Wow.

As if the grief itself wasn’t bad enough, it was compounded by how her body reacted to the whole situation. Within mere days, she began to gain weight. Between “stress and cortisol,” as she noted, her body changed rapidly and she began to lose her self-esteem from it:

“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. It became a destructive hamster wheel of, do I feel good enough to go out?”

Oh, no…

The weight gain and agoraphobia combined to throw her into quite a rut. But eventually, after months battling that, her publicist introduced Hayden to personal trainer Marnie Alton. The trainer began taking long walks with Panettiere, and the duo would use them to not only exercise but also talk:

“These long, beautiful walks where we could vent and it would be this therapy session. Marnie empowered me.”

In time, the walks served multiple purposes. They provided therapy sessions for Hayden to talk about Jansen, as well as the other difficult parts of her past. They also allowed the child actor to lose weight, burn fat, and begin to feel better about herself. And over months, they also helped cure her agoraphobia. Hayden recalled:

“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. There’s nothing like looking in the mirror and feeling like you look good enough to walk out the door.”

In the end, these positive developments have given her a new perspective on life following Jansen’s death and her long mourning period in the months beyond it:

“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.”

But even so, she will never forget her brother or the pain that his premature death caused. She concluded:

“I will always be heartbroken about it. I will never be able to get over it. No matter how many years go by, I will never get over his loss.”

You can see the full video (below):

Wow. Such a powerful and touching — and difficult — conversation. Reactions, y’all?

For resources on mental health, visit https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help.

[Image via MEGA/WENN]

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Sep 18, 2024 07:30am PDT