In the months before Hayden Panettiere’s death at 36, she spoke openly about one relationship she still hoped might someday be repaired.

That reconciliation never came.

Now, after years of distance, painful disagreements and very different accounts of their past, Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, has spoken publicly about losing her daughter — and about the thought that is bringing her some comfort.

“I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace,” Vogel said in a phone interview on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

Panettiere’s younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, died unexpectedly at age 28 in 2023. For Vogel, imagining the siblings together again has become part of processing a loss that arrived before the relationship between mother and daughter could be repaired.

Her comments also reopen one of the most complicated chapters of Panettiere’s final year: the actress’s decision to publicly examine the childhood that made her famous, the role her mother played in managing that career and the emotional distance that developed between them.

A Mother and Manager From the Beginning

Panettiere entered the entertainment business almost before she could remember it.

She began working when she was just 8 months old, eventually growing from a child performer into a familiar television and movie presence. Her credits would include Remember the Titans, Heroes and Nashville, among many others.

Vogel was not simply her mother during those formative years. She also managed her daughter’s career.

As Panettiere grew older, she said the distinction between those two roles became increasingly difficult to recognize.

During a May appearance on On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Panettiere described a childhood in which professional responsibilities and family life became deeply intertwined. She said she eventually felt as though she was fulfilling multiple emotional roles for her mother instead of simply being allowed to be her daughter.

“Everything was business,” Panettiere said.

She recalled becoming a confidant, assistant, therapist and emotional support for Vogel — a dynamic she said left her feeling that the ordinary mother-daughter relationship had been lost somewhere along the way.

At 19, Hayden Asked for Her Mom Back

One memory appeared to capture the conflict particularly sharply.

While working on Heroes at age 19, Panettiere said she finally told Vogel that she no longer wanted them to work together.

The reason, as Panettiere later remembered it, was deeply personal.

“I just want you to be my mom,” she told her.

Panettiere said Vogel responded by telling her, “You owe me.”

For the young actress, the exchange carried a painful meaning. She said she initially approached the conversation with hope, believing that ending their professional partnership could give them a chance to rebuild something simpler and more intimate.

Instead, Panettiere said she came away believing her mother was referring to money.

She later described that realization as profoundly disappointing, saying it was difficult to accept the possibility that Vogel did not want the kind of relationship Panettiere had been asking for.

Those memories became part of the story Panettiere told publicly in 2026, particularly through her May memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.

Vogel Had a Very Different View

Vogel did not remain silent as her daughter’s account became public.

Around the memoir’s release, she confirmed that she and Panettiere were estranged while strongly disputing how their relationship was being portrayed.

Vogel said she believed some of the public conflict surrounding their family was connected to promoting the book.

She also said that she had made the decision to stop communicating after what she described as “20 years of trauma.”

From Vogel’s perspective, the story was not simply about a child star hurt by the demands of her career. She described the anguish of watching an adult child make destructive choices and feeling powerless to change the outcome.

“No parent hopes for this scenario,” she said at the time, expressing a desire for children to become their best selves and live peaceful lives.

But Vogel also concluded that a parent cannot force another person to accept help.

Despite those painful words, she said she hoped Panettiere would eventually find inner peace.

Hayden Had Not Completely Closed the Door

What made the estrangement particularly poignant was that Panettiere herself did not describe it as necessarily permanent.

In May, only months before her death, the actress acknowledged that she and Vogel did not currently have a relationship.

But she also made clear that she had not completely abandoned the possibility of reconciliation.

Panettiere said she wanted to leave the door open in case an opportunity to reconnect someday appeared.

That possibility is now gone.

The contrast makes Vogel’s comments after her daughter’s death especially emotional. Their relationship remained unresolved — neither restored nor neatly closed — when Panettiere died.

At the same time, Panettiere spoke much differently about her father, Alan “Skip” Panettiere, saying the two had a “great relationship.”

It was Alan who announced Hayden’s death through a statement shared by her representative.

He remembered his daughter as an “incredible light” and a force whose presence brought love and happiness both to those who knew her personally and to the millions who had watched her perform.

Vogel Also Raised Concerns About Brian Hickerson

In her interview after Panettiere’s death, Vogel also addressed the presence of the actress’s longtime on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson.

According to a police report, Hickerson, 37, and his brother Zach were with Panettiere when she was found dead in South Carolina.

An official cause of death had not been released at the time Vogel spoke.

Vogel said she and Panettiere’s father had been concerned about Hickerson for years, describing him as someone they had wanted out of their daughter’s life.

She specifically alleged that Hickerson had enabled Panettiere in the past.

Their relationship had been marked by serious legal problems.

Hickerson was arrested multiple times during their years together, including on domestic violence charges in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, he pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a partner related to the 2020 case.

He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, four years of formal probation, domestic violence classes, restitution and a five-year protective order. He ultimately spent 13 days in jail. Other charges were dropped, while the 2019 case was dismissed.

Panettiere later described that period of her life as deeply complicated and dark. At the same time, she was privately struggling with addiction to alcohol and opioids.

Hickerson had not responded to requests for comment on Vogel’s latest remarks.

A Family Story Without the Ending They Wanted

Panettiere’s death leaves behind a career that began almost at birth and a family history that became increasingly public during the final months of her life.

Her memoir and interviews revealed how differently a childhood in entertainment could be remembered by the child who lived it and the parent who helped guide it.

Panettiere remembered blurred boundaries, emotional burdens and a moment when she asked her manager to become simply her mother again.

Vogel remembered years of pain, helplessness and watching someone she loved move down a path she believed she could not prevent.

They never resolved those competing versions together.

Yet Panettiere had still left open the possibility that one day something might change.

After her daughter’s death, Vogel can no longer hope for that conversation.

Instead, she is holding onto another image: Hayden reunited with Jansen, the younger brother whose death had devastated her three years earlier.

For a mother speaking after the death of an estranged daughter, it is a bittersweet form of peace — arriving only after the chance for reconciliation had disappeared.