Hayden Panettiere's Estranged Mother Lesley Vogel Refuses to 'Complain' After Deaths of Both Her Children: 'I Have the Strength to Get Back Up'

Hayden Panettiere's estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, is "not complaining" despite the tragic deaths of both of her children.

Panettiere died at 36 of a suspected overdose after being found unresponsive by her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson's brother, Zach, at an apartment they were staying at in Greenville, S.C., on August 16.

Hayden's brother, Jansen Panettiere, died in 2023 at 28 years old due to an undiagnosed heart condition.

Lesley explained that the only way to get through the sudden loss of her kids was by relying on her "inner strength."

“I think you just have to find that inner strength,” Lesley, 70, said during the August 24 episode of Good Morning America. “I have been knocked down throughout my life, and I’m not complaining, because I have the strength to get back up. … It’s how we get back up that defines who we are.”

Lesley and Hayden were estranged at the time of her death. The mourning mother has been criticized for how she's chosen to speak out publicly following her daughter's passing.

"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,” she fired back at critics. “That’s my domain.”

But Lesley said her period of mourning is a "process" and she has yet to grasp the gravity of losing both of her children.

"It’s a process," she explained. "And I think it will probably hit me later on."

Hayden's death was confirmed by her father, Skip Panettiere, just hours after police responded to the 911 call of an "unresponsive female."

Lesley recalled feeling "numb" after finding out her daughter had passed away just three years after her son.

"I was numb. I was just numb," she stated, adding, "I just couldn’t feel anything. I still [am] not grasping that this is real. It doesn’t feel real. My mind tells me it’s not at times. It’s going to be a process."

In 2024, Hayden revealed that losing her younger brother felt like losing part of her "soul."

"He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him,” she told People. “When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul."

She explained that his death caused her to fall back into "destructive" cycles.

"I will always be heartbroken about it. I will never be able to get over it," she added at the time. "No matter how many years go by, I will never get over his loss."

Hayden had been open about her struggles with depression and addiction in the past, even writing about her bouts with both in her May 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.

The actress rose to stardom as a child in projects such as Remember the Titans and later starred in Nashville, Heroes and Ice Princess.

According to her mother, Hayden was "beautiful" and "talented," but she also "suffered" for much of her adult life.

“I want Hayden to be remembered for the talented, beautiful, outgoing, intelligent woman she really was,” she explained. “But I also want people to understand that it is my belief that she was suffering. Now, that doesn’t make sense."

"Because when you look at a beautiful career who’s got an incredible career, even though it had its ups and downs — but you look at that big picture and you go, ‘Why would you be suffering?’" she added. "People don’t understand that you can have all of this, but that doesn’t mean that what’s going on [inside] matches."