Lesley Vogel Has Now Lost Both Her Children, and She Wants to Help Plan Hayden’s Funeral Despite Their Estrangement

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Lesley Vogel’s son Jansen died in 2023 at 28 from an enlarged heart. Her daughter Hayden died August 16 at 36. Hayden had gone no-contact with her, and now Vogel is rumored to want to plan the funeral.

A group of mourners, including Hayden Panettiere and her on/off boyfriend Brian Hickerson, make their way through a parking lot in Palisades, New York, for Jansen Panettiere’s celebration of life at Palisades Presbyterian Church in March 2023. Photo by MEGA.

“She’s with her brother and they’re at peace,” Lesley Vogel said after Hayden Panettiere died August 16 at 36 in Greenville, South Carolina. Vogel’s son Jansen died in 2023 at 28 from an enlarged heart. Hayden was her second child to bury in three years, and the two were estranged when she died.

Two blonde women wearing baseball caps sit close together on a cream couch aboard a yacht, smiling at the camera. — Hayden Panettiere and her mother Lesley Vogel seated together aboard a yacht on Sydney Harbour in March 2009, during Hayden’s visit to Australia as a spokesperson for the Whaleman Foundation. Photo by Peter Carrette Archive / Getty Images.

Vogel managed her daughter’s career from childhood. In her 2026 memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” Panettiere wrote that she’d felt like her mother’s “assistant, confidant, and therapist.”

Hayden Panettiere in a colorful bomber jacket alongside Brian Hickerson at Jansen Panettiere's memorial service in Palisades, New York — Wearing her late brother’s colorful bomber jacket, Hayden Panettiere and boyfriend Brian Hickerson attend Jansen Panettiere’s celebration of life at Palisades Presbyterian Church in New York on March 8, 2023. Photo by MEGA.

She said the break came at 19, when she asked Vogel to be her mother instead of her agent. “You owe me,” Vogel answered, before walking out of her trailer.

Jansen Panettiere, brother of Hayden Panettiere — Jansen Panettiere, younger brother of actress Hayden Panettiere, passed away on February 19, 2023, in New York at age 28. Photo by MEGA.

On Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast in May 2026, Panettiere said she later learned what that debt meant: “It was disappointing to find out that it was money and that she didn’t pursue a real relationship with me as just a mother and daughter.” Vogel, for her part, called the memoir invented “drama … to sell books” and described her daughter as “entitled” and “unempathetic.”

Lesley Vogel at The Alfred Mann Foundation's Annual Black-Tie Gala in Santa Monica — Lesley Vogel at The Alfred Mann Foundation’s Annual Black-Tie Gala, held at Hangar 8 in Santa Monica on October 16, 2011. Photo by Brian To / WENN.com.

After Vogel spoke to NBC News about her daughter having “sadly lost her way,” Ruby Rose posted screenshots of texts she said came from Hayden about the pain her mother still caused. “I’m 36 and she can still cause this kind of pain,” one read.

Lesley Vogel with long highlighted hair wearing a green halter dress at a charity event in Los Angeles. — At Beso in Los Angeles on November 15, 2009, Lesley Vogel attended a fundraising benefit for the Whaleman Foundation. Photo by David Livingston / Getty Images.

Now the family can’t agree on who decides what happens next. “Lesley is Hayden’s mother, but that doesn’t erase the history between them,” a source told Rob Shuter’s Naughty But Nice. “There are people around Hayden who believe those closest to her should be making these decisions.”

Panettiere is survived by her parents and her 11-year-old daughter Kaya, whom she shared with ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko. Months before her death, Panettiere said she’d kept hoping to reconcile: “Because who doesn’t want a relationship with their mother? But she slammed that door pretty hard in my face.”

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