Hayden Panettiere’s mother Lesley Vogel believes the account of her daughter’s death at age 36 given by Brian Hickerson is ‘full of holes’ and believes he’s not telling police the truth about what happened.
In an extensive hour-long exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Vogel said she pressured law enforcement in South Carolina to investigate Hayden’s death and raised serious questions about Hickerson and his account of her daughter’s final hours.
Vogel said Hickerson, who once served time in jail for beating Hayden, had a toxic ‘codependent bond’ with Hayden that was ‘much more powerful than people realized.’
She revealed she spoke with a police officer at the scene and asked if there would be a further investigation. ‘She said to me, “Well, what do you think about Brian Hickerson?” And I said, “I think he’s culpable.”‘
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has since joined the investigation. Hickerson has not been accused of any crime and the Daily Mail makes no suggestion of wrongdoing.
Hickerson, Vogel claimed, told police that Hayden was doing her makeup in the Greenville Airbnb around 10.30am on Sunday, August 16, and he went out for something.
She said Hickerson told police that he returned later and went to take a nap. Vogel’s account of what Hickerson told police does not include him seeing or speaking to Hayden after he returned, she claims.
According to Vogel, Hickerson told the officer that at some later point, his brother Zach knocked at the door and Brian went to answer. Hayden was then found unresponsive.
Hayden Panettiere’s mother Lesley Vogel insisted she never stopped trying to protect her daughter, despite their complicated relationship, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail. Pictured in
Panettiere was found ‘unresponsive’ in an armchair at a Greenville, South Carolina apartment where on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson was also staying on Sunday. She was later declared dead just five days before her 37th birthday. Hickerson previously faced domestic abuse charges involving Panettiere
Vogel believes there are unexplained gaps in that account, especially the presence of Narcan, which, according to Hickerson’s brother Zach, had been administered by Brian.
‘I think there will be a discrepancy in the timeline, meaning Brian had to go out and buy the Narcan while he left her there because I do not believe he happened to have two bottles of Narcan on him, like he carried them around in his back pocket.’
She also doubts his claim that he simply found Hayden unresponsive.
‘I don’t know how you can take a nap near someone who’s dying and not realize something’s wrong. How do you do that?
‘When the EMTs came it was for a cardiac arrest. People in cardiac arrest aren’t just lying still. They make noise.
‘I think Brian called his brother. My opinion. I think he knew she was deceased. Called his brother, and tried and built this story.’
Vogel also lashed out at brutal accusations by CBS’ Gayle King, podcaster Megyn Kelly – and even her deceased daughter – that she’s an ogre who pushed Hayden as a child actress and only cared about money.
Vogel, 70, now says that she ‘wants justice’ for Hayden – and that the tragedy has been made worse by public insults hurled at her.
A heavily redacted police report released Tuesday revealed Brian Hickerson (left) and his brother Zachary (right) were with Panettiere inside the luxury Greenville apartment complex loft when she was pronounced dead
The couple were staying at the swanky Judson Mill apartment complex where she was found unresponsive on August 16
‘There is infinite sadness,’ Vogel said about the loss of her daughter, which came three years after her 28-year-old son, Jansen, died from heart issues.
‘But this is not the time for me to be weak. I don’t have the luxury right now of being weak. I have too much to do for Hayden. When I’m done with that, then I will give myself the luxury to mourn – deeply mourn.’
‘I’m not saying I’m not grieving now. I am, and I do have my moments. But the bigger picture right now is I have to stay strong. I don’t have an option.’
Gayle King slammed a brief statement Vogel made after Hayden’s death in which she said her daughter had ‘lost her way’ by addressing Vogel directly:
‘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… You read this and all I can think is, “Thanks, Mom, for nothing.”‘
Megyn Kelly was harsher, telling Vogel: ‘You failed at your job… You got an F as a parent. You made a bunch of money off of your daughter. You probably have a super nice car and a big house. You failed. You raised someone to the age of majority who doesn’t feel safe, loved, or cherished. You’re a loser.’
Vogel, who was also portrayed as a hard-driving, demanding stage mother in Hayden’s May 2026 memoir, ‘This is Me: A Reckoning,’ said her relationship with her daughter was ‘complicated’ but she doesn’t deserve being trashed by people who have never met her.
‘I was very, very hurt and deeply disappointed in the lack of professionalism, the lack of compassion in slamming someone who’s lost two children, without even a modicum of consideration,’ she said. ‘No one reached out to me before. It’s shameful. It’s unconscionable to me.’
Panettiere spoke publicly about the abuse and the complicated bond that repeatedly drew her back to Hickerson
Earlier this week, Greenville police officers were snapped arriving at the South Carolina home linked to Brian and Zach Hickerson to conduct a welfare check, the Daily Mail revealed
An officer was seen knocking on the door of the four-bedroom home repeatedly but received no response from anyone inside
Gayle King was among those who publicly criticized Vogel’s statement about Panettiere’s tragic death saying: ‘It makes me so sad that of the opportunity that you have after your daughter’s death, that that’s what you choose to leave us with’
But Vogel said she has ‘huge responsibilities’ which involve both keeping on top of the investigation into Hayden’s death – and the closure of her estate.
During the nearly hour-long interview, Vogel’s voice only cracked once – while defending her decision to put Hayden into showbusiness when she was only 11 months old.
In her book and in some recent interviews, Hayden called herself a ‘little soldier’ forced into modeling and acting when she was too young and portrayed Vogel as more manager than mother who got angry if Hayden blew an audition.
But Panettiere also admits in her book that she enjoyed a lot of her child stardom. She did more than 50 commercials as a child and at four landed her first soap role, playing Sarah Roberts in ‘One Life to Live.’
At seven she was signed to play Lizzie Spaulding on ‘Guiding Light,’ a meaty part that required her to learn 20 to 40 pages of dialogue a day.
Vogel said she never set out to make Panettiere a professional actress when she first signed her up with the Wilhelmina modeling agency as a baby.
Vogel slammed critics for attacking a mother who has ‘lost two children’. Hayden’s younger brother Jansen died unexpectedly in 2023 at the age of 28 (pictured in 2019)
Vogel defended her decision to put Hayden into show business when she was only 11 months old. The late actress is pictured in one of her child television roles in 1999
‘She started with Wilhelmina at eight months old because she’s a beautiful baby. I mean, really beautiful baby,’ Vogel said.
‘My thought then was, let her do some stuff, we’ll put it in her college fund, and she’ll go to college and she’ll have this. I never expected her to be a professional actor, never.’
But Vogel, who had acting experience herself, said it quickly became apparent that her daughter possessed an extraordinary natural ability, including a knack for memorizing large chunks of dialogue that even the adults on soaps struggled with.
Both veteran soap star Beth Chamberlin, who played Hayden’s mother on ‘Guiding Light’ for three years, and John Loprieno, who played her father on ‘One Life to Live,’ told the Daily Mail that Hayden had an uncanny ability to know her lines, adapt to last-minute script changes on set – and breeze through camera blocking and fast-moving takes with ease.
Chamberlin said she never saw signs of strain between Hayden and her mother, with whom she’s still friendly, adding that Hayden seemed to love her job. Loprieno said the same thing.
‘I mean, she’d come into the studio skipping,’ Chamberlin told the Daily Mail. ‘She was just so happy, and she lit up when she went on the set.
‘We also helped make it a very unique atmosphere for her on the set. She felt safe and protected. And Lesley was always there.’
Vogel acknowledged that she was a demanding mother and acting coach but strongly denied that she forced Panettiere to work or was abusive.
‘I was strong, definitely, but I was not abusive by any stretch of the imagination,’ she told the Daily Mail.
Panettiere, right, and James Marsden greet audience members during the 21st Annual Kids’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles in 2008
Hayden and Jansen were raised by mom Lesley and dad Skip
‘I think that Hayden put a pressure on herself. I know that she has mentioned, you know, always had to please Mom, or make sure it was, you know, I succeeded or whatever. I didn’t put that on her. I think she put that on herself.’
Vogel said the idea that a parent could force a very young child to sustain a successful acting career was unrealistic.
‘Try making a two-to five-year-old child do something they don’t want to do,’ she said. ‘Are you going to be successful? No, you’re not. Probably 99 percent of the time.’
Vogel said her relationship with her daughter remained close through much of Panettiere’s adolescence but began changing when she was about 16 or 17 and older influences entered her life.
But she said Panettiere’s life changed dramatically after Hickerson entered it.
She was already at a low point, having given up the daughter she shared with former heavyweight champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko, because of her struggles with postpartum depression and substance abuse.
‘When Brian came into her life, the changes started to occur,’ she said. ‘Very early in the game, I thought he’s a modern-day gigolo. I know what he’s after.’
She said the relationship eventually became deeply codependent as drugs became part of their lives.
‘I would talk to both of them about it,’ Vogel added. ‘I would say, ‘This is a codependent relationship, and it is not healthy for either of you.’
‘My sadness is that everything that I did, her father did, friends did, business people did – we could not break that codependent bond. It is so much more powerful than people understand.’
Vogel said she ultimately cut off contact with her daughter because she felt powerless to change the situation.
‘When Hayden comes out and talks trash about Mom, it’s because I had to break away,’ she said.
The couple’s years-long on-again, off-again relationship with realtor Brian Hickerson that was marred by domestic abuse
‘I had to go no contact because I could not help her anymore. I could not change this pattern, and believe me, I tried. I didn’t leave because I didn’t care about her or didn’t love her. I put so much effort in trying to save her. You cannot save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.’
Vogel said she believes Panettiere gravitated toward Hickerson in part because the relationship made her feel less inadequate at a low point in her life.
‘Her child’s father is Wladimir Klitschko,’ Vogel said. ‘He is one of the most exceptional people I’ve ever met.’
‘But when you’re not feeling good about yourself, you don’t want to be with someone who makes you feel worse about yourself. So she found a loser. So every day she didn’t feel like she was failing, and he latched onto that and I suppose said everything to her she needed to hear.’
Vogel said Hickerson had ‘no career’ and ‘no money,’ while Panettiere was financially supporting the relationship.
‘I know he put pressure on. I know he threatened. I know he did a lot of things,’ she said.
The bereaved mom says her relationship with her daughter remained close through much of Panettiere’s adolescence but began changing when she was about 16 or 17
Hickerson addressed Panettiere’s death through his attorney Sloan Ellis on Thursday, saying: ‘Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed.
‘As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play.
‘Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.’
Vogel, meanwhile, said she remains in contact with 11-year-old Kaya, who lives in Ukraine, and praised Klitschko as a devoted father. She said Klitschko told Kaya the basics of her mother’s death and she is handling it as well as can be expected.
‘He has people surrounding her who are very positive and supportive. So I’m not worried about Kaya.’
Though Panettiere apparently died without a will, Vogel said that under California law the entire estate is likely to go to Kaya, which she is grateful for.
‘This child is exceptional,’ Vogel said of her granddaughter. ‘I mean, she’s an amazing human being. She’s 11 years old, speaks five languages. She’s a hunter jumper and wins.’
For now, Vogel said, she is determined to keep moving forward through both the investigation and the task of settling her daughter’s affairs.
‘There’s a journey ahead here,’ Vogel said. ‘I feel like I’m willing to take it on.’
‘That’s my MO. That’s what I do. That’s my job.’
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