Actress Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mother’s statement on Hayden’s death
Actress Hayden Panettiere passed away two days ago, and I’ve been seeing various headlines about responses from actors and actresses that had worked with her. All of them have been sweet.
Unfortunately, her estranged mother Lesley Vogel released a statement as well. Hayden wrote in her autobiography how her mother used her as a work horse, and she was earning the family money before her first birthday. She said, “Everything was business. I became the confidant and the assistant and the therapist and the shoulder to cry on and everything but her child.” (Source)
Hayden’s mother took zero accountability for her role in Hayden’s mental health and substance issues and instead blamed Hayden’s boyfriend, saying, “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. There is a lot of history in the past that Brian has enabled Hayden many times and this is why her father and I had been concerned for a long time about him.” (Same source)
I enjoyed Hayden as an actress, but didn’t follow her on social media or keep up with her life updates. I don’t have a parasocial connection to her and I didn’t know she released a memoir recently.
I’m posting because reading about her mother using her like a piggy bank and personal assistant while working her to the bone, then blaming others for Hayden’s struggles made me angry and sad. It’s too bad even in death her mother wouldn’t acknowledge how she had used and abused someone she was supposed to protect and has completely externalized any accountability.
I suppose I’m posting because if anyone will understand the anger I’m feeling, it’s you all. Of course I’m not a celebrity and never will be, but I can relate to the feeling of being abused by the people meant to protect you. It sickens me Hayden couldn’t know a world without her abuser in it.
I hope Hayden is at peace.