Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mother Lesley Vogel is speaking out after her daughter’s sudden death at age 36.

In a phone interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Aug. 18, Vogel 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 added, “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. I wish she had stayed true to herself because she had many incredible attributes.”

“I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace,” added Vogel. Panettiere’s younger brother Jansen died unexpectedly at age 28 in 2023.

Panettiere had been candid about her complicated and ultimately estranged relationship with her mother in the months before her death, including in her May 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning. Vogel, who managed her daughter’s career from childhood, also publicly responded to Panettiere’s claims around the book’s release.

In a May appearance on On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Panettiere reflected on beginning her career at 8 months old and said that, as she got older, the line between Vogel’s roles as her mother and manager became increasingly blurred.

“Everything was business,” Panettiere recalled. “I became the confidant and the assistant and the therapist and the shoulder to cry on and everything but her child.”

Panettiere said that while filming Heroes at 19, she told Vogel that she wanted to end their professional relationship in hopes of rebuilding their bond as mother and daughter. “I said to her, ‘I don’t want us to work together anymore. I just want you to be my mom,’ ” she recalled. According to Panettiere, Vogel responded, “You owe me.”

“I remember being hopeful,” Panettiere said of the conversation, adding that it was “disappointing” when she came to believe her mother was referring to money. “The fact that she didn’t care to have a relationship with me was a tough pill to swallow.”

Around the release of Panettiere’s memoir, Vogel publicly pushed back against her daughter’s account and confirmed their estrangement. In a statement to Page Six, she said she believed “the present drama is partially to sell books.”

Vogel said she had chosen to go no-contact after “20 years of trauma,” explaining, “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.”