New Details About Hayden Panettiere's Final Hours, and Jon Ossoff's Disgusting Attack, with Rob Finnerty | Ep. 1381
August 18, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readIn her memoir This Is Me, published just months before her death, Hayden Panettiere described the Valentine’s Day 2020 incident in Jackson, Wyoming, in exacting detail: her boyfriend Brian Hickerson pushed her against a wall, slapped her hard, and was arrested for domestic battery. She got a five-year restraining order. And over the next four years, she kept going back to him. On the day she died at age 36 in Greenville, South Carolina, Hickerson was with her. Paramedics found Narcan next to her body. The toxicology report will take months, but Megyn Kelly argues the pattern is unmistakable—and the questions about who enabled her final hours are far from closed.
The mechanism of abuse: why strong women stay
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Episode Introduction & Ads** - Megyn Kelly opens the show, setting up the main topics: the death of Hayden Panettiere and the Jon Ossoff attack.
- 2 (01:01) **Hayden Panettiere Death Investigation Begins** - Megyn compares Panettiere's case to Matthew Perry's, highlighting the pattern of enablers in celebrity drug deaths.
- 3 (03:38) **The Role of the Abusive Boyfriend** - Megyn scrutinizes the actions of Panettiere's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, who was present when she died.
- 4 (11:40) **The Cycle of Domestic Abuse** - Megyn connects Panettiere's pattern of returning to her abuser to the broader psychology of domestic violence victims.
- 5 (17:29) **Hickerson's Own Words and Final Hours** - Megyn analyzes Hickerson's public statements, including his admission of abuse and his acknowledgment that Panettiere would be better off without him.
- 6 (30:58) **Parental Responsibility and Self-Worth** - Megyn pivots to a critique of Panettiere's parents and a broader message about self-love and personal responsibility.
- 7 (45:57) **Hollywood's Predatory Culture** - Megyn pivots to criticize the broader Hollywood system that exploits young actors, using a clip of Charlize Theron.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Megyn Kelly discusses the latest on Hayden Panettiere’s death, whether the people that enabled her addiction and potential overdose could be held accountable, how Matthew Perry's drug suppliers were ultimately charged in his death, the major questions about Hayden Panettiere’s ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson, the horrifying story Panettiere wrote about of Hickerson's past abuse, why professional and smart woman who stay with abusers, why Panettiere was still with her on-again off-again boyfriend after she had a restraining order against him, how Hayden Panettiere’s parents and ex-boyfriend failed her before her death, and more. Then Rob Finnerty, host of "Finnerty" on Newsmax, joins to discuss Jon Ossoff’s offensive attack on Trump's female aide Natalie Harp, how his tough guy act is actually making him look weak, the leftists in the UK attacking the media and claiming racism over Jason Arday's demise, the backlash that's ignoring the lies and plagiarism from Arday, the Miss Universe Canada former winner back to playing the victim over cultural appropriation, and more. Then Jared Cooney Horvath, author of "The Digital Delusion," joins to discuss the extensive use of technology in classrooms, how it has negatively affected learning and memory for kids, the value of reading actual paper over a screen, the way our brain works differently when looking at technology vs. tactical sources, and more.
Finnerty- https://www.newsmaxtv.com/Shows/finnerty
Horvath- https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/838437/
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