Hayden Panettiere's mum takes aim at Brian Hickerson in statement

Hayden Panettiere's mum has spoken for the first time since her daughter died on Sunday.

In the statement, Lesley Vogel criticised Panettiere's on-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, who was reportedly in the apartment with Panettiere when she died.

"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.

She went on to say that she is taking some comfort from the fact that Panettiere is now reunited with her younger brother, Jansen, who died aged 28 in 2023, due to complications with his aortic valve.

"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," Vogel said. "I just feel that she's with her brother and they're at peace."

Panettiere died aged 36 on Sunday, after being found unresponsive in her apartment by a friend.

She had been estranged from her mother for several years. In May, she told how being a child star affected their relationship. "Everything was business," she said on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast. "I became the confidant and the assistant and the therapist and the shoulder to cry on and everything but her child."

She told how she tried to change their relationship when she was working on Heroes, when she was 19. "I said to her, 'I don't want us to work together anymore. I just want you to be my mom,'" she recalled.