Hayden Panettiere’s Boyfriend Allegedly Pursued Another Woman

**Branson Quirk** (0:08)
Hey, welcome to The TMZ Podcast, I'm Branson Quirk.

**Kara Rainwater** (0:11)
I'm Kara Rainwater.

**Branson Quirk** (0:12)
We have the lovely Kara Rainwater here. What a really, can we just take a second? What a really cool last name. Right? Is that really your last name?

**Kara Rainwater** (0:20)
Like actually.

**Branson Quirk** (0:21)
Sounds like a stage name. Doesn't it sound kind of crazy? Yeah, like a name you'd come up with like when you moved to LA and it's like. I've heard some. You audition with it.

**Kara Rainwater** (0:28)
I've heard some inappropriate things about my last name too. Does it sound kind of.

**Branson Quirk** (0:31)
Oh, well that, we just took it to an area where it's like.

**Kara Rainwater** (0:34)
In middle school, I was like, I mean it.

**Branson Quirk** (0:35)
Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. Kids are horrible, but it's a really cool last name. You should never, you should definitely not take a guy's last name.

**Kara Rainwater** (0:43)
Oh, I'm like high finner, yeah.

**Branson Quirk** (0:44)
When you get married, yeah, keep that in there.

**Kara Rainwater** (0:46)
Rainwater. Rainwater's too cool, right?

**Branson Quirk** (0:47)
Yeah, exactly. I'm Quirk.
Yeah, see, I don't want to get married.

**Kara Rainwater** (0:52)
I don't want to get married as like Johnson.

**Branson Quirk** (0:54)
Yeah, yeah, I know. I get it. Well, we have a variety of stories we're going to talk about today. Starting off with Hayden Panettiere, her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson.
This investigation, still ongoing, and to exactly what happened, it almost seems like we don't have that many details. Because since this took place, Hayden, it's a possible overdose. Toxicology reports, by the way, take eight to ten weeks.
And by the way, we are very loss awards and very sad and over the death of Hayden. And now the focus has shifted over to her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson.
It was learned that they were together. It wasn't off and on. They were together as late as when Charlie Neffier at TMZ did an interview with him. And she was promoting her memoir and everything and talking about her experiences and her team. Thought it was bad for business for her to be publicly in a relationship with him. As we know, they were both at the apartment complex in South Carolina when this happened. Also, Brian's brother, Zach, was also at the apartment complex. And then Narcan was found at the scene as well, which is for opioid overdose to treat the reverse effect of that. So, right now, all eyes have been on him. And her mother has also spoken out. Leslie Vogel has been very vocal about Brian Hickerson calling him a toxic person in her life. Essentially, kind of based on what she's said, it almost sounds like she was blaming him a little bit.

**Kara Rainwater** (2:32)
It did sound like she was kind of putting the blame, saying that he was like someone she shouldn't have been around. You know, it's a really difficult situation.

**Branson Quirk** (2:40)
100%.
Well, Brian Hickerson, a woman, another woman is actually speaking out now, claiming that Brian Hickerson allegedly sent flirty DMs months before the death of Hayden.
Page Six reports that Brian met an unnamed 25-year-old woman at the Cats Pajamas Nightclub in Greenville, South Carolina on March 28th. The woman said she was quote, heavily intoxicated that night and remembered little about meeting Brian, Brian allegedly messaged her the following day saying quote, great meeting you last night pretty lady, I owe you a date. He invited her to join him for a drink and later suggested taking her somewhere nice for dinner. Brian allegedly joked that her request for a nice date quote, clearly throws Waffle House out the window, suggesting Hall's Chop House instead.
He also allegedly told her he had just moved to Greenville from Los Angeles and was happy to meet a quote pretty girl there. The woman says that they never actually went on a date. She said that the 12 year age difference, she was 25 and Brian was 37, along with not remembering much about their initial meeting, made her uncomfortable pursuing anything. The woman also claimed she had no idea Brian and Hayden were together at the time. And that's what we were just talking about. Brian and Hayden were not publicly in a relationship. We didn't find that out until after she passed. Like I said, Charlie Neff here at TMZ, one of our senior producers, she did an interview with him. And he was saying things like, he's happy that she's not with him and things like that. And we also learned that her circle would laugh at the fact that people thought that they weren't together. When they knew behind the scenes that they were, but it was bad for business, for the memoir, detailing his experiences. Because as we know, Brian was arrested in 2020 for domestic violence and abuse with Hayden. And it's one of those things where we don't know too many details about what was going on behind the scenes up until her death. And if they were both doing the drugs inside the house or inside the apartment complex, where does that lie legally? The DEA has not gotten involved.