Hayden Panettiere's Mother Denies Saying 'You Owe Me' and Blames 'Heroes'
Lesley Vogel, mother of the late actress Hayden Panettiere, is pushing back hard. In a Monday interview on Good Morning America, she disputed a key claim from her daughter's memoir and addressed critics of her earlier statements about Panettiere's death.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Vogel specifically denied an incident described in Panettiere's book. The actress wrote that at age 19, when she told her mother she was ending their professional management arrangement, Vogel responded, "You owe me." Vogel now claims she said nothing of the sort. "I know I didn’t say what she said I said," she told GMA.
Vogel also pointed to her daughter's role on the NBC series *Heroes* as a turning point. She stated Panettiere had a "happy life" until landing that breakout part at 16, but that she began to decline by age 17. "I wasn’t in charge of her choices," Vogel said of watching her daughter's later struggles.
The mother also responded to those who criticized her for saying Panettiere had "lost her way" after her death. "You don’t have a right to tell me how I mourn the loss of my second child," Vogel said. She added that she wants her daughter remembered as a "talented, beautiful, outgoing, intelligent woman."
Previously, Vogel had also taken aim at commentators Gayle King and Megyn Kelly for their critiques, calling their remarks hurtful and lacking in compassion.
