General Hospital
GH’s Jonathan Jackson Honors His Late Nashville Co-Star Hayden Panettiere
GH alum Jonathan Jackson breaks his silence on Hayden Panettiere’s death with a heartfelt Nashville co-star tribute posted on Instagram.
GH ALUM JONATHAN JACKSON BREAKS HIS SILENCE ON HAYDEN PANETTIERE’S DEATH
TL;DR: Days after Hayden Panettiere’s death at 36, her Nashville co-star and General Hospital alum Jonathan Jackson has shared a lengthy, heartfelt tribute to the actress on Instagram.
GH Alum Jonathan Jackson Remembers His Nashville Co-Star
Jonathan Jackson has broken his silence on the death of Hayden Panettiere, sharing a lengthy tribute to his former on-screen wife on Instagram. Panettiere, who starred as country singer Juliette Barnes on the ABC and later CMT musical drama Nashville, died on Sunday, August 16, at the age of 36. She was found unresponsive at a home in Greenville, South Carolina, and the Greenville County Coroner’s Office has said an autopsy found no signs of trauma, though a cause of death has not yet been determined.
Long before Nashville, Panettiere got her start on daytime television, playing Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live from 1994 to 1997, then taking over the role of Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light from 1996 to 2000. That soap history is part of what made this week’s tribute from a fellow daytime alum feel especially close to home for longtime fans.
Jackson played Avery Barkley, the singer-songwriter who became Juliette’s husband and the father of her daughter across Nashville’s six-season run from 2012 to 2018. On General Hospital, Jackson is remembered for originating the role of Lucky Spencer, son of super couple Luke and Laura, in 1993. He went on to win five Daytime Emmy Awards across multiple stints on the canvas, spanning 1993 to 1999, 2009 to 2011, a brief 2015 return, and a comeback that began in August 2024 before he departed again in June 2025.
Have your own memories of Hayden Panettiere’s work? Send them our way at amber@soapoperamagazine.com, we’d love to hear from you.
In His Own Words: Remembering Hayden Panettiere
Writing on Instagram, Jackson called Panettiere “a sensitive soul” who was “incredibly funny and witty,” adding that she was “amazingly gifted, with a great sense of empathy and compassion.” He described how the pair “both grew up in the industry,” noting that Panettiere started even younger than he did, and that they shared “a silent knowing of how intense the struggles can be.”
Jackson went on to call his former co-star “an absolute joy to work with,” praising her as “focused, spontaneous and brilliant” and pointing to the trust that anchored their years working together. He and his wife Elisa, he wrote, “love and cherish her deeply, like our own sister,” adding that his daily hope for Panettiere on set was that “she would know how loved she is, and that she would find the peace that she was looking for.”
A Tribute Rooted in Shared History
Jackson closed his tribute by acknowledging the scale of the grief rippling through Panettiere’s circle, writing that it isn’t “possible to express the shock and grief that so many of us feel right now,” and extending “humble prayers” to her family. He ended with a simple, direct farewell: Panettiere, he wrote, will “always be in our hearts.”
Jackson is one of several Nashville alums who have spoken out this week, joining co-stars including Connie Britton and Charles Esten in remembering Panettiere publicly. For fans who grew up watching Jackson on General Hospital, the tribute lands as a reminder of how far his and Panettiere’s paths crossed beyond daytime, from Port Charles to the fictional Nashville music scene that made both of them household names to a new generation of viewers.
Panettiere is survived by her daughter, Kaya. Her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, died in 2023 at age 28, a loss she had spoken about candidly in the years since, including in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, released earlier this year. Jackson, for his part, has spent the past decade balancing his own daytime legacy with a wide-ranging career beyond Port Charles, and this week’s tribute is a reminder of how much of that career overlapped, quietly and meaningfully, with Panettiere’s own.
Authorities in Greenville have said the investigation into Panettiere’s death remains open, with toxicology results still pending as of this week. No further details have been released by the coroner’s office beyond the initial autopsy findings.
If Jonathan Jackson’s words moved you, let us know in the comments below.
Sending Our Condolences
Jonathan Jackson’s words capture what so many who worked alongside Hayden Panettiere have described this week: a performer who brought warmth, humor, and depth to every role and every relationship. Losing her at 36, with so much life and work still ahead of her, is the kind of grief that doesn’t come with easy words, and Jackson’s tribute reflects that struggle to find them.
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