Lesley Vogel has earned greater than a handful of critics over time.
Nonetheless, that isn’t stopping her from sitting down with Good Morning America to talk out following the dying of her daughter, Hayden Panettiere.
Lesley, who managed Hayden’s childhood in Hollywood, reserving her daughter’s first TV industrial gig when Hayden was simply 11 months previous, says she was “numb” when she heard the information of her dying:
“I used to be numb. I used to be simply numb. I simply couldn’t really feel something. I nonetheless am not greedy that is actual. It simply doesn’t, it doesn’t really feel actual. My thoughts tells me it’s not at occasions. You recognize, it’s going to be a course of.”
Hayden and Lesley have been estranged on the time of the Nashville star’s passing, having gone fully no contact in 2025 after — in accordance with Lesley — an ultimatum was given about Hayden’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson.
“She knew that Brian was poisonous.”
The previous cleaning soap opera actress says she was staying together with her daughter final yr when issues got here to a head over Hayden desirous to get again along with Brian:
“I acquired the cellphone name from her saying ‘I’m going to be with the particular person I like.’ And I mentioned, I simply misplaced it. I misplaced it. I couldn’t imagine that she had gone that far again, that he had been profitable in reeling her again in with the entire issues he had carried out to her.”
For these unaware, Brian has admitted to being horribly abusive towards Hayden prior to now.
Associated: Brian’s Brother Zach Describes The Day Hayden Died
For Lesley, seeing her daughter return to an abusive associate was an excessive amount of to bear. However relatively than staying involved to be a assist for her daughter, Lesley says she took the recommendation of her therapist and went no-contact. She didn’t understand that will be the final time she would ever communicate to her youngster, explaining:
“I wanted it. I wanted to have that pocket of time. In fact, I assumed it was going to be a pocket of time. I didn’t, by any stretch of the creativeness, suppose that this was going to occur to Hayden. I don’t know why. I simply didn’t. Perhaps I didn’t wish to.”
This occurred in 2025. Then, in Could 2026, Hayden launched her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, and their personal friction grew to become public.
In Hayden’s personal phrases, she described feeling “groomed” to be a “little soldier” of Hollywood, by no means feeling free to say no or categorical her personal wants. She mentioned on the time:
“I believe it’s the way in which I used to be raised. I used to be groomed. I used to be like a bit soldier and I all the time have been. No was by no means an possibility. It was simply, ‘Listed below are your scenes, right here’s your dialogue, memorize it, hit the marks, do what your director tells you to do.’ I took my marching orders.”
And in a subsequent interview with Jay Shetty, she additional detailed her strife together with her mom, saying:
“The whole lot was enterprise. I grew to become the confidant and the assistant and the therapist and the shoulder to cry on and the whole lot however her youngster. … I mentioned to her, ‘I don’t need us to work collectively anymore. I simply need you to be my mother.’ I bear in mind being hopeful. However I additionally wasn’t anticipating the response that I acquired, which was, ‘You owe me.’ And that’s all she mentioned. And she or he walked out.”
It wouldn’t take lengthy for Lesley to talk to the press about her aspect of issues, telling Web page Six:
“There’s a persona ‘type’ which manifests as a necessity for management, entitlement and an absence of empathy. The most important worry is that somebody will see via the masks they current to the world and uncover who they in truth are.”
She went on to say “this situation can’t be ‘fastened’” and regardless of any “continuous efforts to assist,” “consolation,” or “encouragement given, it can by no means be sufficient”:
“This persona type doesn’t settle for accountability for all times decisions and due to this fact feels they don’t have any want to change their conduct. After 20 years of trauma, I took the recommendation of pros and selected the no-contact route. As many dad and mom of leisure youngsters [know], we’re all too accustomed to the painful remark of watching the self-destructive paths they generally select. No guardian hopes for this situation; we would like our kids to be the very best of themselves and stay a peaceable, joyful life!”
This sort of assertion didn’t go over so nicely with the web. And even Brian Hickerson had one thing to say, telling TMZ:
“Hayden’s mom is by far one of many worst folks I’ve ever met in my life … I simply can’t together with her. She’s horrible.”
Even now, within the aftermath of Hayden’s dying, folks aren’t joyful about Lesley talking out about it.
Hayden’s pal Ruby Rose known as Lesley’s current feedback out on Threads final week, even sharing textual content messages of Hayden’s that confirmed how distraught the Heroes actress was over the way in which her mom reacted to the e-book, particularly after Hayden had publicly mentioned the door for reconciliation was open. Within the texts she shared, Hayden instructed Ruby:
“I used to be sobbing over her cruelty yesterday considering, my god I’m 36 and she will nonetheless trigger this sort of ache. I’m her solely youngster left and that is how she needs to deal with the scenario?!”
Jansen Panettiere, Hayden’s little brother and Lesley’s son, had beforehand handed away from coronary heart issues in 2023. He was solely 28.
Associated: Hayden’s Highly effective PSA About Captive Dolphins
Ruby hasn’t been the one well-known critic, both. After Lesley spoke out on her daughter’s dying by saying Hayden had “sadly misplaced her means” and had wished Hayden might have “stayed true to herself as a result of she had many unimaginable attributes,” Gayle King reacted to them on CBS Mornings by saying:
“You recognize, guys, you learn this and all I can suppose is, ‘Thanks, Mother, for nothing.’ … It makes me so unhappy of the chance that you’ve got after your daughter’s dying that that’s what you select to depart us with.”
When requested how she processes the criticisms aimed her, Lesley instructed Good Morning America:
“I might say to the haters on the market, you don’t have a proper to inform me how I mourn the lack of my second youngster. That’s my area.”
Lesley went on to share how she hopes her daughter might be remembered, explaining:
“I would like Hayden to be remembered for the proficient, lovely, outgoing, clever girl she actually was. However I additionally need folks to know that it’s my perception that her she was struggling. Now, that doesn’t make sense as a result of once you have a look at an attractive woman who’s acquired an unimaginable profession, despite the fact that it had has had its ups and downs, however you have a look at that huge image and also you go, ‘How Why would you be struggling?’ Individuals don’t perceive you could have on the outside all of this however that doesn’t imply that what’s happening in right here matches.”
You may watch extra of her interview (beneath):
Hayden was an awfully brilliant mild on the planet. She raised consciousness for a lot of causes, notably each animal rights and postpartum melancholy. Her legacy will stay on via the optimistic affect she left on society, her good performances on display, the love and compassion she confirmed others, and naturally, via her daughter, Kaya.
Could she relaxation in peace.
To study extra about postpartum melancholy, CLICK HERE or HERE.
To study extra about Hayden’s work for animal rights, CLICK HERE or HERE.
[Image via ABC/YouTube/MEGA/WENN]
