Hayden Panettiere's mother, Lesley Vogel, has said she saw her daughter "going downhill" after she became a star on the TV series Heroes, as she spoke following the actress's sudden death at age 36.
Panettiere, who also starred in Nashville and the Scream franchise, died at her home in Greenville, South Carolina, on August 16. Vogel became emotional during an interview on Good Morning America, saying she is "still not grasping this is real" before getting up from her chair and saying she "needed a minute" to continue.
Fame's Early Toll
Vogel said her relationship with Panettiere, who would have celebrated her 37th birthday on 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."
She added: "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."
Memoir and Custody Dispute
In her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere claimed that, at 19, she told Vogel she no longer wanted her to manage her career and Vogel replied: "You owe me." 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. 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."
Mourning and Family Loss
Vogel responded to criticism, including from CBS Mornings host Gayle King, that she was focusing too much on her daughter's struggles. 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."
