Hayden Panettiere’s mother says daughter’s life went ‘downhill’ after fame

Hayeden Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, became emotional as she spoke about her daughter’s passing, aged 36

Hayden Panettiere’s mother has said she saw her daughter “going downhill” after she became a star on the TV series Heroes, as she spoke following her tragic, sudden death.

The actress, who also starred in Nashville and the Scream franchise, died aged 36 at her home in Greenville, South Carolina, on August 16.

Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, became emotional as she spoke about her daughter’s passing on Good Morning America, saying she is “still not grasping this is real”. She then got up from her chair and said she “needed a minute” before continuing with the interview.

Vogel said her relationship with Panettiere, who would have celebrated her 37th birthday last Friday (August 21), changed after she found fame on Heroes.

She said: “I would say Hayden had a very happy life up until she got Heroes at 16. Here she was, the star of a major TV series, but I would say, at about 17, I started seeing her going downhill.

“As she got older, it wasn’t my voice anymore. I wasn’t in charge of her choices. I tried to give her the best advice I could. But again, any young person, teen, they want to be liberated and I get that.”

In her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere claimed that, at 19, she told Vogel that she no longer wanted her to manage her career and Vogel replied: “You owe me.” But Vogel, a former actress who had Panettiere with her ex-husband Alan Lee ‘Skip’ Panettiere, denied this, saying: “I know I didn’t say what she said I said.”

Panettiere was the mother of an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, with former boxer Wladimir Klitschko, who received full custody of her. Vogel said: “The situation with Hayden and Vlad and their daughter, that was a very difficult period for her. Vlad had taken over custody for safety, in my opinion. She just couldn’t keep those demons away.”

Vogel also responded to criticism from people, including CBS Mornings host Gayle King, who felt she was focusing too much on her daughter’s struggles in the wake of her death. She said: “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.”

Police in Greenville said Panettiere was found unresponsive and in cardiac arrest, with “no signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances”.

Vogel and Skip were also parents to a son, Jansen, who died aged 28 in 2023 from aortic valve complications arising from an enlarged heart.

Asked about losing both of her children, Vogel said: “I think you just have to find that inner strength. I have been knocked down throughout my life and I’m not complaining because I have the strength to get back up. It’s not if we fall, it’s how we get back up, that defines who we are.”