Hayden Panettiere’s mom has shared that Hayden's on-and-off-again ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson was someone the family had been "trying to get rid of for some time," amid new reports that he and his brother Zach were with Hayden at the time of her death.
Lesley Vogel, who has been estranged from her daughter for some time, revealed the family’s longstanding concerns with Brian, and said she wished things could have been different for her daughter.
© Getty Images"I think it becomes very difficult to be true to yourself and I think Hayden sadly lost her way and I wish it were different," Lesley told NBC News. "I wish she had stayed true to herself because she had many incredible attributes."
"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," she added, making her first comments since news of Hayden's passing broke.
© GC Images"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," Lesley continued.
Hayden's brother, and Lesley's son, Jansen died in 2023, and in tears, Lesley concluded: "I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace."
Lesley was Hayden's manager until she was 19, and in Hayden's 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, Hayden wrote of the pressure she felt to impress her mother, who was also a soap actress.
Hayden also told podcaster Jay Shetty that when she asked Lesley to "be my mom," Lesley told Hayden: "You owe me."
"The fact that it seemed like she didn’t want to — didn’t care to — have a relationship with me was a tough pill to swallow," added Hayden.
© Getty ImagesA heavily redacted local police report reveals that Brian and Zach were both on the scene when the responding officer, identified in the report as Matthew Bryan, arrived.
The officer's report says Zach was "very emotional" as emergency responders worked on Hayden, and that Brian "did not become visibly emotional until EMS declared the 36-year-old actor dead".
Brian showed police a "bag of medication" that Hayden was taking at the time of her death, the police report noted.
© ABC via Getty ImagesA neighbor told Page Six that no one knew Hayden had been staying in the apartment, and that locals had suspected it was an Airbnb rental.
They saw the police speaking with two men, now identified as Brian and Zach, who were sitting outside the apartment complex, noting that "they looked like they were in shock, not speaking, and had their heads down".
© GC ImagesIn Hayden's memoir, she claimed that Brian once beat her so badly she did not leave the house for weeks. She wrote that she hesitated to report the alleged abuse because she did not want the public to find out.
Los Angeles County criminal court records reveal he was arrested on May 2, 2019, on allegations of injuring a spouse, although it does not identify the name of the victim. He pleaded no contest on April 20, 2021, and was sentenced in 2022 to four years’ probation.
Hayden requested a restraining order against him on July 14, 2020. "I am prepared to do my part to make sure this man never hurts anyone again," she said in a statement at the time.
However, Brian attended the celebration of life event for Hayden's younger brother Jansene on March 8, 2023 in New York with Hayden.
© InstagramHayden had battled substance abuse and mental health issues for years, after coming up in Hollywood as a child and cementing herself as a star with hit shows Heroes and Nashville.
She was open about her struggles with alcohol and drug use, revealing someone on her team first gave her drugs when she was 16.
She also battled postpartum depression privately and in 2018 gave up full custody if her then-four-year-old daughter Kaya to Kaya's father, ex-fiancé, Ukrainian former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko.
