Hayden Panettiere's ex Brian Hickerson reveals domestic abuse story he didn't want in her memoir
Hayden Panettiere has detailed her abusive relationship with Brian Hickerson in her memoir, and now her ex has opened up on reading the chapter.
Hayden Panettiere's ex Brian Hickerson reveals a domestic abuse story he didn't want her to include in her memoir.
The Heroes star is set to release her new memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, and in the book she reflects on their relationship from 2018 to 2022, during which time Hickerson was arrested multiple times for domestic abuse.
Speaking to TMZ about one moment he wishes didn't make it into the book, he said: “There’s a story where I was drunk, right?
"Hayden was standing across the room and I had a phone in my hand and I said… 'I’ll give you 10 seconds to run as fast as you can before I throw it at you.' "
Hickerson admitted reading about their relationship was difficult, but it's important.
He added: “Who wants to read something about themselves, right? But you gotta be vulnerable and I did it. I did it, so.”
Hickerson insisted if he'd received more education about domestic violence "at an early age", he might not have acting a certain way.
He argued: "My biggest thing about domestic violence is I don't think it is taught early enough in life.
"Never in my life did I ever get taught what domestic violence was, right? Maybe if I did at an early age, maybe I wouldn't have done what I did. We don't know."
In April 2021, Hickerson was jailed for 45 years after pleading no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend.
Also part of his sentencing was four years probation, an order to attend 52 domestic violence classes, and a five-year restraining order which barred him from going near the Nashville actress.
Elsewhere in the interview, he insisted the abusive relationship - which Hayden, 36, kept private from some of her closest friends out of embarrassment for the toxic cycle - "speaks for itself".
He said: "I got arrested for abusing her. And I wouldn’t blame her friends for being pissed off at me. So I don’t really have much to say on that."
And Hickerson addressed a 2020 incident, when he got arrested for allegedly punching the actress.
he recalled: “I had a lot to drink and I got physical with her. I got arrested. Spent the night in jail and um, you know, that’s just what happens when you lay hands on women."
Hickerson added that the "bottom line" is "you never lay hands on a woman", while he claimed he spoke to Hayden recently.
He revealed: "The conversation was about the book…it’s her first book, who wouldn’t be nervous about it?
"But you know, the only thing I said to her is I was like, ‘Look, dude.’ I was like, ‘You got one of the craziest stories I’ve ever heard in my life, and when people read it, it’s going to be a hit.'”
Hayden recently described that experience of revisiting their abusive relationship for the memoir as "brutal, traumatic, and emotional".
She told Us Weekly: “It was important for me to word that experience properly. It’s a very embarrassing subject.
"I’ve always seen myself as such a resilient and strong woman.
"The idea that I could allow something like this to happen to me blew my mind. It blew the minds of the people that knew me best.”
