Lesley Vogel has fired back at Gayle King after the CBS Mornings host publicly condemned her remarks following the death of her daughter Hayden Panettiere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIeqq2J1I_M
Vogel, the estranged mother of the Heroes and Nashville actress, sat down for a tell-all interview with the Daily Mail in which she slammed King for criticizing her initial statement about Panettiere’s death. The 36-year-old actress was found unresponsive at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, on August 16, where paramedics attempted CPR before pronouncing her dead at 2:32 p.m. Her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson, 37, and his brother Zach were present at the scene, and the DEA has since opened an investigation.
Vogel’s first public comments after the death drew immediate scrutiny. She had said, “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.” She also singled out Hickerson, telling the outlet, “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.”
King, 70, seized on Vogel’s remarks during CBS Mornings on Wednesday, repeating the statement before delivering her own blunt assessment. “It makes me so sad of the opportunity that you have after your daughter’s death that that’s what you choose to leave us with… You read this and all I can think is, ‘Thanks, Mom, for nothing’,” King said on air. Her co-hosts piled on. Kelly O’Grady suggested Vogel ought to have “stopped at ‘she’s amazing and she’s talented’.” Vladimir Duthiers added, “For her mother to use these days after Hayden’s death to just remind the world just how much trauma she caused, it’s unseemly. You would hope a mother’s instinct is just mourn your daughter.”
Vogel, who had already lost her younger son Jansen to heart complications in 2023, was stung by the pile-on. “I was very, very hurt and deeply disappointed in the lack of professionalism, the lack of compassion in slamming someone who’s lost two children, without even a modicum of consideration,” she said. “No one reached out to me before. It’s shameful. It’s unconscionable to me.”
The mother-daughter estrangement had been public for years. Panettiere addressed it directly in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, released in May, writing that at 19 she told Vogel, “I don’t want us to work together anymore; I just want you to be my mom,” only to receive the response, “You owe me.” Vogel disputed this framing in a Page Six interview at the time, claiming “the present drama is partially to sell books” and saying she had ended contact after “20 years of trauma.” Still, she allowed there was “always that flicker of hope” that Panettiere would “find her path to inner peace.”
In the viral moment that preceded this clash, Panettiere died just a day after flying from Los Angeles to South Carolina with Hickerson. First responders arrived at approximately 1:51 p.m. To find her in cardiac arrest. An autopsy completed August 17 found no signs of trauma contributing to her death, though the cause and manner remain pending toxicology results. Dispatch audio obtained by People referenced an “overdose” and “cardiac arrest,” though authorities have not confirmed an overdose occurred. Reports said that Narcan was found in the apartment.
Vogel had attempted to get ahead of the backlash in a broader statement shared with Entertainment Tonight. “Although my daughter and I were estranged, it was not for lack of care or love,” she wrote. “It was due to the involvement of a toxic individual who I believe led to her death.” She echoed that sentiment in her May Page Six interview about the memoir, remarking, “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,” She added, “You cannot save someone who does not want to be saved.”
Hickerson, for his part, broke his silence through his attorney Sloan Ellis on Thursday. “Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,” Ellis said. “As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play. Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.” A police report obtained by NBC News put both Hickerson brothers at the scene, noting Zach was “very emotional” while EMS worked on Panettiere, and that Brian did not become visibly emotional until she was pronounced dead.
Panettiere’s father, Skip Panettiere, took a different approach than his ex-wife in his own statement, remembering his daughter as “an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her.” Former fiancé Wladimir Klitschko, 50, also mourned her on Instagram, writing that although she was “no longer my partner,” nothing could erase their time together and promising their 11-year-old daughter Kaya that he would “always speak of her mother with respect.”
The DEA investigation continues alongside the local coroner’s probe.