What Has Hayden Panettiere’s Family Said About Her Death?
After Panettiere died, her father Skip Panettiere told ABC News she was “an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her—and to the millions who watched her onscreen.”
Two days later, her mother Lesley Vogel broke her silence.
“This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death,” she told NBC News Aug. 18, “and that was Brian Hickerson.”
While Panettiere—whose brother Jansen died in 2023 at age 28—and her mom had publicly spoken about their estrangement, Vogel remembered her daughter as “an amazingly talented person in so many departments.”
“I think young people who grow up in the entertainment industry—it is a struggle and it’s a very challenging industry,” she added, “and it’s not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path.”
Additionally, her ex Wladimir Klitschko addressed his “profound shock and grief” he and their daughter Kaya were facing in the wake of Panettiere’s death. The Ukranian boxer further vowed to keep the Nashville alum’s legacy alive in Kaya’s memory.
