Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach were reportedly at the apartment when Hayden Panettiere died aged 36.
First responders had been called out to attend a woman suffering from ‘cardiac arrest’ with reports that the star had suffered an ‘overdose’.
Best known for her roles in Heroes and Nashville, a representative confirmed her death on Monday, saying her family would remember her as an ‘incredible light’.
Panettiere’s on-and-off partner Hickerson was there as paramedics attended the scene, becoming ‘visibly emotional’ after they declared her dead.
His brother was ‘very emotional’ while the medical staff were ‘working on Hayden’, according to TMZ.
A source claimed the couple were still together privately even when publicly Panettiere had distanced herself from him, on the advice of her team.
Hickerson pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend in 2021. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail for injuring the actress, as well as four years of formal probation, 52 domestic violence classes, $500 in restitution and a five-year protective order.
It was previously reported that he had a request for his past felony domestic violence charges to be reduced or expunged by a judge three days before her death.
But the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to Page Six that Judge Olivia Rosales denied Hickerson’s request.
Panettiere had spoken out against Hickerson after his arrest in 2020, saying she wanted to ’empower others in abusive relationships’.
‘I am prepared to do my part to make sure this man never hurts anyone again,’ she had said at the time. ‘I’m grateful for my support system, which helped me find the courage to regain my voice and my life.’
Panettiere candidly wrote about suffering physical abuse in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning and also admitted her struggles to cut him off.
It’s unknown how long they had been back together but TMZ’s source suggested they were an item while she was promoting her memoir, months before her death.
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office confirmed to that emergency services were called to an address on Sunday for a woman in cardiac arrest.
‘An autopsy was completed today,’ a previous statement from the coroner said. ‘At autopsy no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death.
‘The cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies.’
Other reports confirmed that Naloxone was found at the scene, which is used to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose. Her official cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
Her ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko, who has full custody of their daughter Kaya, 11, shared a moving tribute to the ‘talented’ Panettiere.
He wrote that she had ‘left this world far too soon’, adding: ‘Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives…’
The Ukrainian boxer said for Kaya he will ‘always speak of her mother with respect and make sure she remembers the person she was’.