Hayden Panettiere’s Estranged Mom Lesley Vogel Speaks Out After Her Death: ‘She’s with Her Brother and They’re at Peace’ Deirdre DurkanTue, August 18, 2026 at 6:34 PM UTC 40 Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mom Lesley Vogel spoke out in an interview after the star’s death Panettiere had previously opened up about her complicated childhood and strained relationship with her mother in her memoir “I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace,” Lesley Vogel told NBC News in a phone interview Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mother Lesley Vogel is speaking out after her daughter’s sudden ...
Hayden Panettiere’s Estranged Mom Lesley Vogel Speaks Out After Her Death: ‘She’s with Her Brother and They’re at Peace’
Deirdre DurkanTue, August 18, 2026 at 6:34 PM UTC
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Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mom Lesley Vogel spoke out in an interview after the star’s death
Panettiere had previously opened up about her complicated childhood and strained relationship with her mother in her memoir
“I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace,” Lesley Vogel told NBC News in a phone interview
Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mother Lesley Vogel is speaking out after her daughter’s sudden death at age 36.
In a phone interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Aug. 18, Vogel said, “I think Hayden was an amazingly talented person in so many departments and I think young people who grow up in the entertainment industry — it is a struggle and it’s a very challenging industry and it’s not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path.”
She added, “I think it becomes very difficult to be true to yourself, and I think Hayden sadly lost her way, and I wish it were different. I wish she had stayed true to herself because she had many incredible attributes.”
“I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace,” added Vogel. Panettiere’s younger brother Jansen died unexpectedly at age 28 in 2023.
Hayden Panettiere and her mother Lesley Vogel.Credit: Mathew Imaging/FilmMagic
Panettiere had been candid about her complicated and ultimately estranged relationship with her mother in the months before her death, including in her May 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning. Vogel, who managed her daughter’s career from childhood, also publicly responded to Panettiere’s claims around the book’s release.
In a May appearance on On Purposewith Jay Shetty, Panettiere reflected on beginning her career at 8 months old and said that, as she got older, the line between Vogel’s roles as her mother and manager became increasingly blurred.
“Everything was business,” Panettiere recalled. “I became the confidant and the assistant and the therapist and the shoulder to cry on and everything but her child.”
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Hayden Panettiere with her mother Lesley Vogel on March 31, 2009 in Sydney, AustraliaCredit: Peter Carrette Archive/Getty
Panettiere said that while filming Heroes at 19, she told Vogel that she wanted to end their professional relationship in hopes of rebuilding their bond as mother and daughter. “I said to her, ‘I don’t want us to work together anymore. I just want you to be my mom,’ ” she recalled. According to Panettiere, Vogel responded, “You owe me.”
“I remember being hopeful,” Panettiere said of the conversation, adding that it was “disappointing” when she came to believe her mother was referring to money. “The fact that she didn’t care to have a relationship with me was a tough pill to swallow.”
Around the release of Panettiere’s memoir, Vogel publicly pushed back against her daughter’s account and confirmed their estrangement. In a statement to Page Six, she said she believed “the present drama is partially to sell books.”
Vogel said she had chosen to go no-contact after “20 years of trauma,” explaining, “As many parents of entertainment children [know], we are all too familiar with the painful observation of watching the self-destructive paths they sometimes choose. No parent hopes for this scenario; we want our children to be the best of themselves and live a peaceful, joyful life!”
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“Sadly, this is out of our control,” she continued. “You cannot save someone who does not want to be saved.”
Vogel concluded by expressing hope that Panettiere would eventually “find her path to inner peace.”
In May, Panettiere had expressed hope that she and Vogel could eventually repair their relationship. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a relationship right now,” she told Us Weekly, at the time. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t leave the door open for the opportunity to present itself one day.”
Despite the estrangement from her mother, Panettiere described having a “great relationship” with her father, Alan “Skip” Panettiere.
Hayden Panettiere on September 13, 2022 in Hollywood, CaliforniaCredit: Jon Kopaloff/Getty
Alan announced their daughter’s death in a statement on Sunday, shared via Panettiere’s rep: “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen.”
In the interview with NBC News, Vogel also reacted to Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson being with her when she was found dead in South Carolina. “This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson,” she said.
Hickerson, 37, and his brother Zach were with Panettiere, according to a police report. Panettiere’s official cause of death has not yet been released, but officials were heard discussing an “overdose” and “cardiac arrest” around the time of her death, according to dispatch audio.
“There is a lot of history in the past that Brian has enabled Hayden many times and this is why her father and I had been concerned for a long time about him,” Vogel told the outlet.
Hickerson has not responded to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.
During their years-long relationship, Hickerson was arrested numerous times, on charges including domestic violence in 2019 and 2020. Panettiere later described the period as “a very dark and complicated time in my life,” as she was privately struggling with addiction to alcohol and opioids.
In 2021, Hickerson pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a partner, related to the 2020 arrest. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, four years of formal probation, 52 domestic violence classes, $500 in restitution and a five-year protective order. He spent 13 days in jail. The other charges were dropped. The 2019 case was dismissed.
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Published: August 19, 2026 at 07:54AM on Source: MORNING MAG
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