What Happened To Hayden Panettiere's Brother Jansen?
On August 16, 2026, "Heroes, "Scream," and "Nashville" actress Hayden Panettiere died at age 36. As fans who kept up with her career and life may know, this was not the only recent tragedy in her family. As some of the comments on Panettiere's final Instagram post note, she is the second former child star in her family who's passed away. On February 19, 2023, Panettiere's younger brother, Jansen, suddenly and unexpectedly died of an enlarged heart and aortic valve complications in New York City, at just 28 years of age.
Like his sister, Jansen Panettiere was an actor who started at a young age. He made his screen acting debut in 2002 in "Even Stevens" Season 3 episode "The Big Splash," and proceeded to work on a steady stream of movies, shows, and video games. He was a talented voice actor who worked on projects like "Blue's Clues," "Robots," and "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown." His screen credits include movies like "The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry," "The Perfect Game," and "The Martial Arts Kid."
Hayden Panettiere was devastated by her brother's death
Hayden and Jansen Panettiere were very close, and as such, losing her brother was an incredibly difficult ordeal for the actress. "He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him," Panettiere told People in 2024. "When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul."
To make things worse, Panettiere was just coming off a series of serious personal life struggles and enjoying her comeback in "Scream 6" when Jansen died. In the People interview, she said that the paparazzi attention in the wake of the tragedy worsened her already existing agoraphobia, and the stress caused physical changes and self esteem issues. Throughout all this, she also dealt with the grief from her brother's death — something she suspected she'd never fully get over. However, she also noted that the tragedy granted her a whole new perspective.
"When something that massive has happened to you, you really learn to pick your fights and just not let the little things upset you," Panettiere told People about coping with her brother's death. "Because once something so horrific, so deep, so catastrophic happens in your life, there's not much that can really rock you."