Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, has broken her silence following her daughter’s tragic death, speaking publicly about the actress’s struggles and her troubled relationship with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson.
“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,” Vogel told NBC News.
“I think Hayden sadly lost her way, and I wish it were different.”
She criticised Hickerson, who was with Panettiere at the time of her death, claiming her family had been concerned about his influence on the actress for years.
“This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death,” Vogel said, “and that was Brian Hickerson.”
She added, “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.”
The comments come despite Panettiere previously revealing that she was not speaking with her mother before her death.
Who Is Hayden Panettiere’s On-And-Off Boyfriend, Brian Hickerson?
Brian Hickerson is originally from South Carolina, where his family still resides. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in real estate development alongside acting. He landed a role in the 2017 thriller film “M.F.A.”, which remains his sole acting credit.
Panettiere and Hickerson began dating in 2018, embarking on a turbulent, on-again, off-again romance. Their relationship became increasingly volatile as Hickerson faced multiple arrests and criminal charges stemming from incidents reportedly involving the actress.
In 2020, he was charged with multiple counts of felony abuse and pleaded no contest to two counts of injuring a spouse or partner. He served a short time in jail as a result of the case before being sentenced to four years of probation, along with anger management and Alcoholics Anonymous sessions.
Panettiere had previously written about Hickerson’s time behind bars, expressing hope that the experience would change him. She later detailed the alleged abuse she endured during their relationship in her 2026 memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” describing a dark period in her life that unfolded alongside her struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.
“I needed him to admit his wrongs and change because of them, but I didn’t want to traumatise him in an irreversible way,” she wrote.
Just months before her passing, Panettiere spoke about the difficulty of leaving an abusive relationship during an interview with Us Weekly.
“Getting an abusive person out of your life is like trying to rip a weed out that is so entangled into your life, and every time you pull it out another weed pops back up and you’re like, I thought I killed this,” she said. “They always manage to find a way to slither back in, even if you’re an incredibly strong-willed person.
Speaking to Jay Shetty on his podcast, Panettiere also reflected on an abusive former partner, saying, “the abuse, the fact that I allowed this person not only into my life, but for how long I put up with it. This is a topic I’ve been journaling a lot about.”
Officials have confirmed that an autopsy was completed on Monday and that “no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death.”
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