Hayden Panettiere’s mom slams tell-all book, says she chose estrangement after ’20 years of trauma’

Key Points

• Hayden Panettiere’s mom and former manager, Lesley Vogel, is speaking out ahead of her daughter’s memoir.

• In the book, Panettiere recounts being pushed hard by her mother in her career, after beginning acting at age 5.

• The actress claims that when she severed their business relationship, her mom responded by saying, “You owe me.”

Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mom and former manager Lesley Vogel is sharing her side of the story.

The Nashville alum has been making the rounds to support the release of her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she pulls back the curtain on her Hollywood experience by getting candid about child stardom, including her experience with having her mom double as her boss.

In recent weeks, Panettiere has discussed being pushed too hard by her mother in her career and opened up about their current estrangement.

Vogel leveled a response to her “entitled” daughter in a statement to Page Six on Thursday. The actress and former manager told the outlet that she believes “the present drama is partially to sell books.”

“There is a personality ‘style’ which manifests as a need for control, entitlement, and a lack of empathy,” she explained. “The major fear is that someone will see through the mask they present to the world and discover who they truthfully are.”

Hayden Panettiere and her mother, Lesley Vogel, at a Golden Globes afterparty in 2009
Credit: Lester Cohen/WireImage

While Vogel did not directly name her daughter, she argued that “this condition cannot be ‘fixed'” and “this personality style does not accept responsibility for life choices and therefore feels they have no need to alter their behavior.”

In a profile published last week in Us Weekly, Panettiere said that she and her mother “don’t have a relationship right now.” Dubbing that reality “unfortunate,” she added, “That doesn’t mean that I don’t leave the door open for the opportunity to present itself one day.”

Addressing their estrangement, Vogel told Page Six, “After 20 years of trauma, I took the advice of professionals and chose the no-contact route. As many parents of entertainment children [know], we are all too familiar with the painful observation of watching the self-destructive paths they sometimes choose. No parent hopes for this scenario; we want our children to be the best of themselves and live a peaceful, joyful life!”

“Sadly, this is out of our control,” she continued. “You cannot save someone who does not want to be saved. Radical acceptance is the most difficult challenge any parent must embrace. Unfortunately, I have seen a great deal of such in my life experience.”

Hayden Panettiere and brother Jansen with Vogel in 2019.
Credit: Amanda Edwards/Getty

She indicated that she was not surprised by the way she was being portrayed by her daughter.

“When someone leaves, the smear campaign begins; accusations, anger, belittling, gaslighting, etc. are the classic signs of this behavior style,” Vogel said. “The craving of drama and punitive action is traditional and to be expected.”

Panettiere has previously been candid about her journey to sobriety after struggling with alcohol and opioid addiction. Her brother, Jansen Panettiere, who also struggled with substance abuse, died unexpectedly at age 28 in 2023, having suffered from an enlarged heart and aortic valve complications.

Vogel shared that she is “now retired” and searching for her own “personal path to a joyous and peaceful life.” She noted that “there is always that flicker of hope [that Hayden], too, will find her path to inner peace.”

A representative for Panettiere did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.

Panettiere was only 8 months old when she was signed to a modeling agency. Her first Hollywood gig came at just 5 years old, when she landed a role on the soap opera One Life to Live. The actress has described working basically nonstop from that point on.

Appearing on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast earlier this week, Panettiere recounted severing her professional relationship with her mother. She said she garnered the “courage” to do so at age 19, when she was in the midst of filming the superhero series, Heroes.

Hayden Panettiere in 2023
Credit: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

“I said to her, ‘I don’t want us to work together anymore. I just want you to be my mom,'” Panettiere recalled.

She was surprised by the response this declaration received. “I remember being hopeful. But I also wasn’t expecting the reaction that I got, which was, ‘You owe me,'” the actress shared. “And that’s all she said. And she walked out.”

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Panettiere said that while she was “relieved” that the conversation was short, she was also haunted by her mother’s comment.

“‘What does she mean by I owe her? What form of payment is she expecting?'” she remembered thinking. “It was disappointing to find out that it was money.”

“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,” she said.

This Is Me: A Reckoning will be published on May 19.

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