Troubled Star’s Estranged Mom Breaks Down After Shock Death

Peter Carrette Archive / Getty Images Lesley Vogel broke down in tears in her first TV appearance since her daughter Hayden Panettiere’s death.

Panettiere’s estranged mother appeared on Good Morning America for a sit-down interview just days after her TV star daughter died suddenly at age 36 on August 16.

Vogel denounced her critics, like CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King , who have questioned her reaction to her daughter’s death.

“I would say to the haters out there, you don’t have a right to tell me how I mourn the loss of my second child.

That’s my domain,” she said, adding that she feels “numb.” Vogel previously said in a statement that Panettiere was an “amazingly talented person” who had “sadly” gone down the “wrong path.” Panettiere’s sudden death comes a few years after her younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, died at age 28 from an undiagnosed enlarged heart.

“I just couldn’t feel anything,” Vogel, 70, said of her daughter’s death.

“I still am not grasping this is real.

It doesn’t feel real.

My mind tells me it’s not all the time.

It’s gonna be a process,” she continued, stepping away as she broke down in tears.

“I need a minute, guys,” she told the show.

Vogel also spoke out against Panettiere’s ex-boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, who previously faced charges of physically abusing the Heroes star.

Hickerson was with Panettiere at an Airbnb in South Carolina when she died.

Vogel said that Panettiere “couldn’t keep those demons away” after she relinquished custody of her daughter to her ex-partner Wladimir Klitschko in 2018.