Hayden Panettiere opens up about her younger brother’s sudden death: 'I felt like I lost half of my soul'

"No matter how many years go by, I will never get over his loss."

Hayden Panettiere is mourning her younger brother.

The Nashville actress gave her first interview about the sudden death of her brother Jansen, who died suddenly at age 28 last year from an undiagnosed heart condition. "He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him,” Panettiere told PEOPLE. "When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul."

The Heroes star said she does not expect her grief to subside. "I will always be heartbroken about it. I will never be able to get over it," she says. "No matter how many years go by, I will never get over his loss."

Panettiere also noted that now she's experienced such an unimaginable loss, very little could shake her beyond her current state. "When something that massive has happened to you, you really learn to pick your fights and just not let the little things upset you," she explained. "Because once something so horrific, so deep, so catastrophic happens in your life, there's not much that can really rock you."

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The Scream actress said that intense media attention exacerbated her pain. "I had to see horrific paparazzi pictures of myself coming out of Jansen’s funeral, which happened in a very private place, and it was shocking," she said. "My agoraphobia came out, which is something I’ve struggled with in the past."

Related: Jansen Panettiere's family reveals he died from an enlarged heart

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After the funeral, Panettiere said that she was deeply affected by "stress and cortisol," which yielded physical changes that made her more uncomfortable leaving her home. “I didn’t feel confident to put on clothes and get out of the house, but I also knew that I needed to get out and keep moving or I’d never stop looking and feeling this way."

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Panettiere eventually began taking walks with her personal trainer, Marnie Alton. "These long, beautiful walks where we could vent and it would be this therapy session," she said. "My body just started reacting, not just from the working out. It allowed me to release the stress, the high expectations I’d always put on myself,” she said.

Jansen appeared in three projects alongside his sister: the 2004 Disney Channel original movie Tiger Cruise, 2012 straight-to-DVD movie The Forger, and the theatrical sports comedy Racing Stripes, which starred Hayden in the lead role as Jensen provided the voice for the younger version of Frankie Muniz's zebra character.

Panettiere will next star in Amber Alert, which hits theaters Sept. 27.

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