Hayden Panettiere’s estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, has publicly criticized the actress's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, in her first statement since Panettiere’s death. Vogel stated that the family had been attempting to remove Hickerson from her daughter's life.
"This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson," Vogel said in a statement to NBC on Tuesday.
Panettiere died on Sunday, August 16, at the age of 36, five days before her 37th birthday. She suffered a cardiac arrest following a suspected overdose at a luxury apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina. Sources told Page Six that Panettiere had been dealing with "severe health issues" in recent months.
Hickerson told police that the actress was consuming "a bag of medication" at the time of her death. The specific names of the medications were redacted in the police report.