Hayden Panettiere’s Estranged Mom Speaks Out After Actor’s Death, Speaks Out Against Daughter's Boyfriend Brian Hickerson

Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mother and former manager, Lesley Vogel, has spoken out about her daughter’s shocking death at the age of 36.

via: Rolling Stone

Hayden Panettiere‘s mother, Lesley Vogel, made her first comments about the death of her daughter on Tuesday, putting scrutiny on Panettiere’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, actor Brian Hickerson. “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 told NBC News.

Hickerson and his brother, Zach, were reportedly inside the Greenville, South Carolina, apartment complex where Panettiere went into cardiac arrest. A police report, referenced by NBC News, described Zach as “very emotional,” but that Brian remained composed until EMS pronounced the actress dead. During the encounter, Brian reportedly produced a “bag of medication” police say he said Panettiere had been taking.

Panettiere’s cause of death remains under investigation, according to the Greenville County Coroner’s Office. In the interview, Vogel said she didn’t know much about the police investigation.

“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 NBC News.

Panettiere first started dating Hickerson after a 2018 stint in rehab. In her recently released memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, she wrote that Hickerson had beat her to the point that she didn’t feel comfortable leaving the house for weeks. Police arrested him the following year on allegations of domestic abuse against an anonymous person. In 2020, Panettiere asked for a restraining order against Hickerson, and the next year, he pleaded no contest to the abuse charge and was sentenced to four years of probation. In the book, Panettiere also described times when she and Hickerson would be drinking, after her time in rehab, that led to alleged domestic violence.

An autopsy on Monday reported “no signs of trauma … that would have contributed to the death,” according to officials.

Vogel said that despite reports, Hickerson and Panettiere were in a relationship at the time of her death. In May, Vogel told Page Six she had cut off communication with Panettiere. “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,” Vogel told NBC News. “I wish she had stayed true to herself because she had many incredible attributes.”

For those unaware, Panettiere detailed the turbulent relationship with her mother in her tell-all memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning” in May. Vogel, a former soap opera actress, was Panettiere’s manager when she started out in Hollywood at a young age. In her memoir, Panettiere called her mother a “perfectionist” and alleged that Vogel superglued a fallen tooth back into Panettiere’s mouth so she wouldn’t lose a job. She also claimed her mother pushed her to dress in more “girly” outfits, instead of her preferred tomboy style.

When the memoir was released, Vogel told Page Six that she believed “the present drama is partially to sell books…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. Sadly, this is out of our control. You cannot save someone who does not want to be saved.”

Regarding her mother, Panettiere told Us Weekly that “unfortunately, we don’t have a relationship right now” but “that doesn’t mean that I don’t leave the door open for the opportunity to present itself one day.” Vogel added in her NBC News interview, “I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace.” Panettiere’s younger brother Jansen died at 28 in 2023.