What to Know
Days after Hayden Panettiere unexpectedly died at 36, her mom, actress Lesley Vogel, is speaking out. Hayden and Lesley had a rocky relationship over the years and were estranged at the time of the Heroes star’s death, but that hasn’t stopped her from sharing her take on what went wrong. After finding out that Hayden was with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, at the time of her death, that’s exactly who Lesley is pointing the finger at.
Lesley spoke out on Hayden’s death on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Lesley spoke to NBC News about the loss of her daughter.
“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 said.
Lesley went on to say that she thinks Hayden “sadly lost her way.”
“I wish she had stayed true to herself because she had many incredible attributes,” she said, adding. “I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace.”
Hayden’s brother, Jansen, died in 2023, and she had always been open about how deeply she grieved that loss.
She said the family had been trying to “get rid of” Brian Hickerson for a while.
Hayden and Brian dated until around 2020, when he was arrested for domestic violence against the actress. A police report obtained by NBC News confirmed that Brian and his brother, Zach, were present when Hayden died, and that Brian showed police a “bag of medicine” Hayden had been taking, though he didn’t appear to have an emotional response until she was pronounced dead.
“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,” Lesley said to the outlet. “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.”
Though Hayden maintained a relationship with her father, Skip, it didn’t seem like that was the case when it came to Lesley, and in May, she told The Independent that she was no longer in contact with her mom.
Police performed a welfare check on Brian on August 18.
According to Page Six, the Greenville Police Department visited the home of Brian’s grandmother (where he had been previously seen) to perform a welfare check. Though they knocked on the door, they didn’t receive a response, even though Brian’s brother was home. They left about three minutes later.
As TMZ reported, Brian deleted his Instagram account sometime after the news of Hayden’s death broke.
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