Hayden Panettiere's Mother Says She Cut Ties After Daughter Rejoined Former Partner

Lesley Vogel, mother of actress Hayden Panettiere, said on Good Morning America that she ended contact with her daughter after Panettiere returned to her on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson. Vogel explained that she had been helping Panettiere leave an abusive relationship a year earlier, but after about six weeks the actress began distancing herself and eventually moved back in with Hickerson.

Vogel said a phone call in which Panettiere announced she was staying with the man prompted her to issue an ultimatum, based on her therapist’s advice, that she could not remain involved while her daughter was with Hickerson. "I needed to have that pocket of time," Vogel said, adding she did not anticipate the situation would end with Panettiere’s death.

Police reports indicate Hickerson and his brother were present at the Greenville, South Carolina apartment where Panettiere was found dead at age 36. A lawyer for Hickerson, Sloan Ellis, said the death is still under investigation and that authorities have found no evidence of foul play.

Panettiere had previously described physical abuse by Hickerson in her memoir, "This Is Me: A Reckoning," stating that he had once struck her so severely she stayed indoors for weeks.