Hayden Panettiere and Brian Hickerson gotpap/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images Following the tragic and sudden death of Hayden Panettiere, the actress’ mother, Lesley Vogel, is breaking her silence.
In an interview with NBC News, Vogel said Panettiere “lost her way” and criticized her daughter’s on-again-off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson.
“This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson,” Vogel said. “I think Hayden was an amazingly talented person in so many departments and I think young people who grow up in the entertainment industry — it is a struggle and it’s a very challenging industry and it’s not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path.”
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Panettiere was 36 when she died Sunday at an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina. The police report said the actress was with Hickerson and his brother, who were at the residence when authorities arrived. The circumstances of Panettiere’s death are under investigation. The Greenville County Coroner’s Office said she was found unresponsive and that her cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation. There were no obvious signs of trauma. But officials on the 911 call included references to an “overdose” and “cardiac arrest,” according to a Page Six report.
In Panettiere’s memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, the actress detailed physical abuse by Hickerson, who later pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a partner and received a five-year protective order.
Vogel told NBC News she would be speaking with a detective but otherwise had no additional information about her daughter’s death.
“I think Hayden sadly lost her way and I wish it were different,” Vogel added to NBC News. “I wish she had stayed true to herself because she had many incredible attributes.”
According to Page Six report in May, Vogel had chosen the “no-contact route” with her daughter after “20 years of trauma” and on the advice of professionals. “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,” she said at the time. “No parent hopes for this scenario.”
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