Hayden Panettiere claims that her mother and former manager Leslie Vogel reacted badly in three words when she ended their business relationship.
Panettiere, now 36, told podcaster Jay Shetty in a candid interview on Monday that she was 19 when she finally had the “courage” to “break up” with Vogel, the “boss” who had been managing her career since she was a child star.
“When we were filming ‘Heroes,’ she came to my trailer at lunch and I said to her, ‘I don’t want to work with you anymore. I just want you to be my mom,'” Panettiere allegedly told Vogel, to which Vogel allegedly replied, “I owe you.”
The actress admitted that she “didn’t expect” that reaction.
“And that’s all she said and walked away,” Panettiere said. “And part of me was like, ‘Oh, I’m relieved it was short enough to rip the Band-Aid off.’ But then I felt like a dark cloud was building over my head, ‘What do you mean she owes me?’ What payment method does she expect?”
Panettile said she later “found out” that her mother just wanted “money.”
The Remember the Titans star claimed Ms Vogel, now 70, was “disappointed” and “didn’t pursue” a mother-daughter relationship after that.
“My hope was that once the business side was taken away, there would be no reason for her to be anything other than a mother,” Panettiere explained. “And the fact that she didn’t want or have any desire to have a relationship with me was a hard pill to swallow.”
When asked about their current relationship status, the actress lamented that they are “sadly” estranged. (Panettiere and her father, Skip Panettiere, “have a great relationship.”)
Hayden said she was “incredibly grateful” for her mother’s guidance early in her career, but claimed that Vogel (who reportedly decided to “quit acting and dedicate her life to building a career” because of her daughter) had very high expectations for her.
“All my life, I have desperately sought her approval. You know, she was the one after every take that I relied on. I didn’t look to the director or the producer or anyone else. She was the only person there, the only person whose opinion mattered to me,” Hayden said.
“I had to make sure that she was happy with it and that I didn’t have a problem, because if I didn’t do it right, I would have a problem. So yeah, that wasn’t a good reaction,” she added.
Hayden also recalled the “very strange” and “uncomfortable” “role reversal” of being a child and then a teenager contributing financially to the family union.
“On the other hand, since I was still a child, I had to listen to my parents and do everything they could and couldn’t do for me,” she explained. “But at the same time, I worked hard and earned money, and that money was being used for things I didn’t know about.”
Hayden became emotional as she talked about losing her “other half” in her brother Jansen Panettiere, who died in February 2023 at the age of 28.
She told Jetty that she “felt so guilty” that her career affected her mother and the time she could spend with Skip and Jansen.
“I remember one night[Vogel]actually turned to me and said, ‘It’s your fault that I miss my son growing up.’ And that was gut-wrenching,” Hayden claimed.
“But as grateful as I was, I wanted to tell her, ‘But I didn’t ask you to take me to an audition. I’m not even old enough to recognize (or understand) anything other than good, bad, hot, cold, changing diapers, and food. …I loved what I was doing, and I had a great experience, but at the same time, I was like, “I’m not asking you to give up your life and sacrifice everything for me to audition for this career.” ”
Vogel did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment, but insisted to the Daily Mail that her estrangement from her daughter was a “recent event” that began around “mid-September” in 2025.
“Each of us has the right to choose our path in life,” she told the media. “After 20 years of trauma, confusion, addiction (and) accusations, I felt I had no choice but to choose no contact.”
She added: “There will always be hope that she can find her own path to inner peace.”
Hayden’s memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, will be released on May 19th.
