The death of Hayden Panettiere, at 36, continues to be shrouded in questions. The actress was found dead on Sunday, August 16, in an apartment in South Carolina, after having traveled from Los Angeles with Brian Hickerson, her on-again, off-again partner.
Amid the investigation, her mother, Lesley Vogel, broke the silence. Estranged from Hayden for months, she spoke with NBC News about her daughter’s death and specifically pointed to Hickerson, with whom the actress had maintained a relationship marked by episodes of domestic violence.
“This person in her life, from whom we’ve been trying to distance ourselves for quite some time, was with her at the moment of her death, and that was Brian Hickerson,” Vogel said.
Qué dijo la mamá de Hayden Panettiere sobre Brian Hickerson
The statements from Vogel emerged as authorities continued to determine what happened to the actress.
Hayden’s mother acknowledged that she had not had contact with her daughter for months and that their last conversation had been in October 2025. She explained that the distance had occurred “for very specific reasons,” but not due to a lack of affection, concern, or love.
In her interview with NBC News, Vogel also referred to Hickerson and made it clear that his presence in her daughter’s life was a cause for concern for the family.
“There is a lot of history in the past where Brian allowed many things with Hayden, and that is why her father and I were worried about him for a long time,” she stated.
Hickerson did not publicly respond to Hayden’s mother’s statements.
Brian Hickerson estaba con Hayden cuando murió
According to a police report, Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach were on the scene when Hayden was found unconscious.
It was Zach who called emergency services. The initial responders tried to revive the actress, who had been found in a state of cardiac arrest. The police report noted that Zach appeared visibly distressed as doctors worked to save her, while Brian did not display a visible reaction until after death was confirmed.
The report also notes that Hickerson showed police a bag containing medications that Hayden was taking. The names of those medications were omitted from the publicly released document.
The autopsy has been performed and found no signs of trauma contributing to the death. However, the cause and manner of death remain pending additional studies, including toxicology analyses.
La relación de Hayden Panettiere y Brian Hickerson
Hayden and Hickerson had an on-and-off relationship for several years, marked by episodes of domestic violence.
In 2020, the actress had sought a restraining order against him. The following year, Hickerson pleaded guilty to two serious charges related to injuries to a partner and received a sentence that included prison, probation, and a protective order.
Hayden herself had publicly spoken about that relationship and the episodes of violence in her book This Is Me: A Reckoning. Some time later, they again came into contact.
The presence of Hickerson alongside Hayden during her final hours again put the relationship under scrutiny, though at the moment there is no official determination establishing that he bore responsibility for her death.
La tristeza de Lesley Vogel por la muerte de su hija
Beyond her questions about Hickerson, Vogel also spoke about Hayden and the life she had led since starting her acting career as a young girl.
“I think Hayden was an incredibly talented person in many ways,” she said. She added that growing up in the entertainment industry can be very difficult, and in her view, her daughter “sadly lost her way.”
The mother-daughter relationship had been complex in recent years. Hayden had publicly spoken about that estrangement and about her experience with Vogel, who had represented her for part of her career.
Now, in the face of the loss, Lesley found a way to comfort herself in another grief the family endured: the death of her son Jansen Panettiere, Hayden’s younger brother, in 2023.
“I just feel that she is with her brother and they are at peace,” the actress’s mother said.
Meanwhile, the investigation into Hayden Panettiere’s death continues. The autopsy did not detect signs of trauma, and toxicology results are still awaited to officially establish the cause of her death.
