Hayden Panettiere Said Bizarre Zebra Accident Left Her With Chronic Pain As Opioid Use Escalated

Hayden Panettiere said injuries she suffered after being thrown from a zebra on a movie set continued to cause her pain decades later, with the actress also recounting how a flare-up of “an old neck injury” contributed to her escalating opioid use.

Panettiere, who died suddenly on Sunday at 36, wrote in her recent memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” about the lasting effects of an accident she suffered at 14 while filming the 2005 movie “Racing Stripes” in South Africa.

Panettiere said she was performing a stunt when she was thrown from the zebra she was riding, sustaining a concussion, whiplash, and injuries to two vertebrae in her neck.

“I kept my mouth shut and endured the pain in my back and neck,” she wrote in the memoir, adding, “Over 20 years later, these injuries still bother me.”

The “Nashville” actress also recalled that injury when discussing her struggles with addiction, both to alcohol and opioids, saying that her dependence on the pain medications in particular had escalated when an “old neck injury flared up.”

Panettiere was found unresponsive at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday afternoon. First responders found her in cardiac arrest and attempted cardiac life support, but she could not be revived. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:32 pm.

Brian Hickerson, Panettiere’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, was at the residence when she died and showed investigators a “bag of medication” that the actress had been taking at the time of her death. He said she was on nine medications.

An autopsy performed on Monday revealed that there were no signs of trauma that might have contributed to her death, according to the Greenville County Coroner’s Office.

Her cause and manner of death remain undetermined pending further investigation and additional testing. Toxicology results could take several weeks.

Authorities have not determined whether opioids, other medications, or Panettiere’s previous injuries played any role in her death.