# Hayden Panettiere's loved ones honor her at celebration of life

> Hayden Panettiere's family honors her memory this weekend amid reports fentanyl played role in her death.
- Title: Hayden Panettiere's loved ones honor her at celebration of…
- Summary: Hayden Panettiere's family honors her memory this weekend amid reports fentanyl played role in her death. Hayden Panettiere, 36, died in Greenville, South…
- Keywords: hayden panettiere, celebration of life, fentanyl, oxycodone, malibu, greenville, south carolina, deaths, celebrities, celebrity news, news, entertainment
- Source: Dailymail — https://dailymail.com/tvshowbiz/article-16142999/Hayden-Panettiere-celebration-life-malibu-death-invesrtigation.html?ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490&ns_mchannel=rss
- Published: 2026-09-18T18:06:50+00:00
- Read time: 3 min
- Topics: hayden panettiere, celebration of life, fentanyl, oxycodone, malibu, greenville, south carolina, deaths, celebrities, celebrity news, news, entertainment
## Hayden Panettiere's loved ones honor her
Hayden Panettiere's loved ones will honor her at a celebration of life this weekend, one month after her shock death at 36.
## Death details
The Heroes actress and mother of one died just days before her 37th birthday in Greenville, South Carolina, on August 1:16 after she allegedly took oxycodone laced with fentanyl.
## Memorial location
Her family plans a memorial in a church in Malibu, California, with around 150 guests in attendance.
## Family attendance
Her father Skip Panettiere is expected to attend along with some celebrity guests, while her estranged mother Lesley Vogel has not been invited.
## Ex boyfriend excluded
Panettiere's ex Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach, who were at the scene when she was pronounced dead, have also been left off the guestlist.
## Ocean setting choice
The ocean setting of Malibu was chosen due to Panettiere's ocean conservation activism, including her 2007 protest in Taiji, Japan against the town's annual dolphin hunt.
## Memorial purpose
Sources added the service will be 'to remember Hayden's legacy and not focus on the struggles she endured.'
## Fentanyl role
This comes days after it was claimed the actress took a pill that was allegedly laced with fentanyl on the day she died, sources told TMZ.
## Fentanyl potency
Just a few grains of the powerful opioid, which is 50 times stronger than heroin, can cause a fatal overdose.
## Drug purchase
The mother-of-one bought several black-market prescription drugs, including oxycodone, from a 'long-time drug dealer' she had in Los Angeles.
## Relationship with ex
The star and her on-off real estate agent boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, had flown from the city to South Carolina, where he is from, one day before she died.
## Drug use on flight
TMZ reported that the actress took several drugs she purchased in Los Angeles on the flight.
## Narcan administration
Hickerson gave Panettiere a dose of Narcan, a medicine that quickly reverses an opioid overdose, after finding her unresponsive.
## Police investigation
Police are now trying to trace the fatal pill back to the person who allegedly sold it to her, according to reports.
## Family background
Panettiere is survived by daughter Kaya, now 11, who signed full custody to her ex Wladimir Klitschko amid her battle with postpartum depression and addiction.
## Health struggles
The actress's death came after a long struggle with alcohol and opiates, which saw her spend eight months in rehab in 2020 after contracting jaundice.
## Rehab memoir
She wrote in her memoir that a doctor told her she would be 'dead within five years' if she didn't stop drinking.
## Brother's death
Her brother Jansen died in February 2023 from 'an enlarged heart' at the age of 28.
## Recent memoir
It comes just months after her memoir, This is Me: A Reckoning, became a New York Times bestseller.
## Addiction history
She had suffered from drug addiction beginning when she was just 15 years old, claiming she started taking 'happy pills' in an effort to make her seem more 'peppy' during interviews.
## Key takeaway

Hayden Panettiere, 36, died in Greenville, South Carolina on August 16 after allegedly taking oxycodone laced with fentanyl, with a celebration of life planned for Saturday in Malibu, California.