Hayden Panettiere's mom insists she never pressured late star to succeed
Hayden Panettiere's mom and former manager has denied she was ever "abusive" or pressured her daughter to succeed.
Hayden Panettiere's mom has denied she was ever "abusive" or pressured her daughter to succeed.
The late Heroes star - who died last weekend aged just 36 - was estranged from Lesley Vogel, which she had previously claimed stemmed from the way the boundaries between her as a parent and manager increasingly crossed, but her mother has now insisted she never forced her daughter to do anything she didn't want to do, though she admitted she was a demanding parent and acting coach.
She told Daily Mail online: "I was strong, definitely, but I was not abusive by any stretch of the imagination.
"I think that Hayden put a pressure on herself. I know that she has mentioned, you know, always had to please Mom, or make sure it was, you know, I succeeded or whatever. I didn't put that on her. I think she put that on herself.
"Try making a two-to five-year-old child do something they don't want to do. Are you going to be successful? No, you're not. Probably 99 percent of the time."
Hayden began modelling when she was just a baby, and made more than 50 commercials as a child, as well as landing her first acting role in One Life to Live when she was just four years old.
But Lesley insisted she "never" expected he to be a professional actress.
She said: "She started with Wilhelmina at eight months old because she's a beautiful baby. I mean, really beautiful baby.
"My thought then was, let her do some stuff, we'll put it in her college fund, and she'll go to college and she'll have this. I never expected her to be a professional actor, never."
In the wake of her daughter's death, Lesley faced criticism for a statement in which she said her daughter hs "lost her way", and she admitted she was "very, very hurt" by comments from the likes of Gayle King and Megyn Kelly.
She said: "I was very, very hurt and deeply disappointed in the lack of professionalism, the lack of compassion in slamming someone who's lost two children, without even a modicum of consideration. No one reached out to me before. It's shameful. It's unconscionable to me."
Gayle had hit out at Lesley on CBS Mornings
Reading out the remarks, Gayle added: “You know, guys, you read this and all I can think is, ‘Thanks, Mom, for nothing.' "
Gayle noted the Nashville star's previous comments about having a complicated relationship with her mom - who was Hayden's manager until she was 19 - and added: "You hear stuff like that and you realise it was still very much [a work] in progress.
“It makes me so sad of the opportunity that you have after your daughter’s death that that’s what you choose to leave us with."
Meanwhile, Megyn ranted: "You failed at your job… You got an F as a parent. You made a bunch of money off of your daughter. You probably have a super nice car and a big house. You failed. You raised someone to the age of majority who doesn't feel safe, loved, or cherished. You're a loser."
