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Lesley Vogel has earned more than a handful of critics over the years.
Still, that isn’t stopping her from sitting down with Good Morning America to speak out following the death of her daughter, Hayden Panettiere.
Lesley, who managed Hayden’s childhood in Hollywood, booking her daughter’s first TV commercial gig when Hayden was just 11 months old, says she was “numb” when she heard the news of her death:
“I was numb. I was just numb. I just couldn’t feel anything. I still am not grasping this is real. It just doesn’t, it doesn’t feel real. My mind tells me it’s not at times. You know, it’s going to be a process.”
Hayden and Lesley were estranged at the time of the Nashville star’s passing, having gone completely no contact in 2025 after — according to Lesley — an ultimatum was given about Hayden’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson.
“She knew that Brian was toxic.”
The former soap opera actress says she was staying with her daughter last year when things came to a head over Hayden wanting to get back together with Brian:
“I got the phone call from her saying ‘I’m going to be with the person I love.’ And I said, I just lost it. I lost it. I could not believe that she had gone that far back, that he had been successful in reeling her back in with all of the things he had done to her.”
For those unaware, Brian has admitted to being horribly abusive toward Hayden in the past.
Related: Brian’s Brother Zach Describes The Day Hayden Died
For Lesley, seeing her daughter go back to an abusive partner was too much to bear. But rather than staying in contact to be a support for her daughter, Lesley says she took the advice of her therapist and went no-contact. She didn’t realize that would be the last time she would ever speak to her child, explaining:
“I needed it. I needed to have that pocket of time. Of course, I thought it was going to be a pocket of time. I did not, by any stretch of the imagination, think that this was going to happen to Hayden. I don’t know why. I just didn’t. Maybe I didn’t want to.”
This happened in 2025. Then, in May 2026, Hayden released her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, and their private friction became public.
In Hayden’s own words, she described feeling “groomed” to be a “little soldier” of Hollywood, never feeling free to say no or express her own needs. She said at the time:
“I think it’s the way I was raised. I was groomed. I was like a little soldier and I always have been. No was never an option. It was just, ‘Here are your scenes, 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 further detailed her strife with her mother, saying:
“Everything was business. I became the confidant and the assistant and the therapist and the shoulder to cry on and everything but her child. … I said to her, ‘I don’t want us to work together anymore. I just want you to be my mom.’ I remember being hopeful. But I also wasn’t expecting the reaction that I got, which was, ‘You owe me.’ And that’s all she said. And she walked out.”
It wouldn’t take long for Lesley to speak to the press about her side of things, telling Page Six:
“There is a personality ‘style’ which manifests as a need for control, entitlement and a lack of empathy. The major fear is that someone will see through the mask they present to the world and discover who they truthfully are.”
She went on to say “this condition cannot be ‘fixed’” and no matter any “continual efforts to support,” “comfort,” or “encouragement given, it will never be enough”:
“This personality style does not accept responsibility for life choices and therefore feels they have no need to alter their behavior. After 20 years of trauma, I took the advice of professionals and chose the no-contact route. 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!”
This kind of statement didn’t go over so well with the internet. And even Brian Hickerson had something to say, telling TMZ:
“Hayden’s mother is by far one of the worst people I’ve ever met in my life … I just can’t with her. She’s terrible.”
Even now, in the aftermath of Hayden’s death, people aren’t happy about Lesley speaking out about it.
Hayden’s friend Ruby Rose called Lesley’s recent comments out on Threads last week, even sharing text messages of Hayden’s that showed how distraught the Heroes actress was over the way her mother reacted to the book, especially after Hayden had publicly said the door for reconciliation was open. In the texts she shared, Hayden told Ruby:
“I was sobbing over her cruelty yesterday thinking, my god I’m 36 and she can still cause this kind of pain. I’m her only child left and this is how she wants to handle the situation?!”
Jansen Panettiere, Hayden’s little brother and Lesley’s son, had previously passed away from heart problems in 2023. He was only 28.
Related: Hayden’s Powerful PSA About Captive Dolphins
Ruby hasn’t been the only famous critic, either. After Lesley spoke out on her daughter’s death by saying Hayden had “sadly lost her way” and had wished Hayden could have “stayed true to herself because she had many incredible attributes,” Gayle King reacted to them on CBS Mornings by saying:
“You know, guys, you read this and all I can think is, ‘Thanks, Mom, for nothing.’ … It makes me so sad of the opportunity that you have after your daughter’s death that that’s what you choose to leave us with.”
When asked how she processes the criticisms aimed her, Lesley told Good Morning America:
“I would say to the haters out there, you don’t have a right to tell me how I mourn the loss of my second child. That’s my domain.”
Lesley went on to share how she hopes her daughter will be remembered, explaining:
“I want Hayden to be remembered for the talented, beautiful, outgoing, intelligent woman she really was. But I also want people to understand that it is my belief that her she was suffering. Now, that doesn’t make sense because when you look at a beautiful girl who’s got an incredible career, even though it had has had its ups and downs, but you look at that big picture and you go, ‘How Why would you be suffering?’ People don’t understand that you can have on the exterior all of this but that doesn’t mean that what’s going on in here matches.”
You can watch more of her interview (below):
Hayden was an extraordinarily bright light in the world. She raised awareness for many causes, notably both animal rights and postpartum depression. Her legacy will live on through the positive impact she left on society, her brilliant performances on screen, the love and compassion she showed others, and of course, through her daughter, Kaya.
May she rest in peace.
To learn more about postpartum depression, CLICK HERE or HERE.
To learn more about Hayden’s work for animal rights, CLICK HERE or HERE.
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