Hayden Panettiere’s Ex Brian Hickerson Still Thinks About Marrying Her: ‘I Hope So’

Hayden Panettiere’s ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson still holds the actress in high regard — and “of course” dreams of marriage.

“I hope so, [but] she probably doesn’t think the same way,” Hickerson, 37, told TMZ on Wednesday, May 13, when asked about the possibility of a reconciliation. “I think Hayden is one of most talented people I’ve ever met in my life, and I would be an idiot not to walk away from her and let her flourish in her career.”

Hickerson further acknowledged that he and Panettiere, 36, “probably wouldn’t be good together” if they reunited.

The Nashville alum and Hickerson were first romantically linked in 2018. He was arrested the next year following an alleged domestic violence incident with Panettiere. Dickerson was charged with felony domestic violence and ordered to stay away from Panettiere. The charges were later dropped before Hickerson was arrested again in 2020 following another domestic violence altercation with Panettiere. He served 33 days in prison, was placed on four years of probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine.

Panettiere and Hickerson broke up after the second alleged incident, but they have presumably remained on friendly terms.

“I think it’s a mutual respect thing,” he told TMZ of where the exes currently stand. “She’ll always hold a special place in my heart, and I hope the same for her. She’s a good bud [and I miss her] every day.”

Panettiere revisited her tumultuous relationship with Hickerson in her upcoming memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.

“It’s a very embarrassing subject. I’ve always seen myself as such a resilient and strong woman, that the idea that I could allow something like this to happen to me, it blew my mind,” she exclusively recalled in an Us Weekly cover story earlier this month. “It blew the minds of the people that knew me best. They, still to this day, can’t believe that I would ever allow that to happen to me.”

She continued, “It was humiliating. It was embarrassing, so I didn’t want anyone to know. I wanted people to know as little as possible.”

Hickerson, who told TMZ he was in “such a dark place” at the time, detailed his approval of the tell-all book.

“I think everyone should read it,” he said. “The domestic violence stuff, I think it’s, like, [on] page 272. Everybody should read it. Who wants to read something about themselves like that, right? But you gotta be vulnerable and I did it.”

This Is Me: A Reckoning will be released on Tuesday, May 19.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.