Heartbroken Hayden Panettiere Insists Late Brother Is 'Right Here With Me' After His Tragic Death

Hayden Panettiere has paid tribute to her late brother after he was found dead last month.

In her first television appearance since Jansen Panettiere's unexpected passing, Hayden emotionally said, "He’s right here with me," while talking to Good Morning America's Michael Strahan — who offered his condolences at the end of their interview on Monday, March 6.

Hayden's younger brother was found dead on February 19 in New York. He was 28. Mere days after the tragedy, his family revealed that the artist's cause of death was an enlarged heart.

"Though it offers little solace, the Medical Examiner reported Jansen's sudden passing was due to cardiomegaly (enlarged heart), coupled with aortic valve complications," Jansen's loved ones shared in the statement. "His charisma, warmth, compassion for others and his creative spirit will live forever in our hearts and in the hearts of all whom he encountered."

News of what led to Jansen's untimely death comes after a friend of The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry actor found him "sitting upright in a chair unresponsive" and began performing emergency CPR.

The friend of the late artist checked in on his pal because he couldn't get a hold of him, and Jansen failed to show up to a business meeting on Sunday, February 20.

Jansen and Hayden's dad, Skip, told police that he had talked to his son the night before and he sounded "OK."

Meanwhile, Jansen had revealed on his art website that he struggled with "terrible anxiety and depression" over the years and used art to help him. And while Jansen did not speak publicly about his struggles, his neighbors accused the late star of ‘'popping pills like gumballs” since he moved to the city of Nyack.

Leading up to his death, neighbors claimed they spotted Jansen coming home looking “wasted” and “shabbily dressed.” One source said, “He'd come out of a car at 4 a.m. wasted. He said he was just coming back from a shoot. He looked destroyed.”

Jansen reportedly went to rehab for drug abuse — as his sister has publicly battled addiction — only to seemingly return back to his old ways after his stint. “When he came back he looked OK in the beginning. He looked like a different person. He came back straightened up. Then he went downhill from there,” one source recalled of Hayden's sibling.

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