Hayden Panettiere’s mom raises questions about timing of estranged daughter’s decision to come out as bisexual

Hayden Panettiere was met with support and praise after coming out about her sexuality this week; However, this announcement raised questions for his mother.

In an interview with Us Weekly to promote her upcoming memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, the 36-year-old actress revealed that she is bisexual and told the publication that she felt “sad” for having to wait so long “to share that part of me.”

‘Now that I know this book is coming out and I have chosen to share it with the world, I can safely say that I am bisexual,’ she said. ‘Yes, I can easily say that I am bisexual. ‘I told you!’

Panettiere’s estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, was skeptical about the timing and suggested that her daughter’s sexuality was not actually a secret.

Reacting to his daughter’s public statement, Vogel, 70, told the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t believe this was hidden, but there is no historical evidence that this was the case.

‘I think the timing of this coming out is very interesting.’

Her estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, questioned the timing of her daughter’s coming forward in a statement shared with the Daily Mail. (Pantiere photographed with her mother and late brother Jansen in 2019)

In a thrilling new interview, Panettiere admitted that from a ‘very, very young age’ he was secretly dating women who preferred him over men.

‘I didn’t have the courage to fully commit myself emotionally to it, because if I fell in love, it wasn’t something I would have to hide,’ she told Us Weekly.

‘I wasn’t confident enough in myself and I was too afraid to really let that part of me explore that part of me.’

Panettiere addressed the state of her relationship with her mother in an Us Weekly interview and said the door is open for a future reconciliation.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have a relationship right now,” he said of his mother. ‘But that doesn’t mean I won’t leave the door open for the opportunity to shine one day.’

But his mother seemed less hopeful, telling the Daily Mail their estrangement was a ‘new incident’ and claiming it started in ‘mid-September’ 2025.

“Each of us has the right to choose our own path in life,” Vogel told the Daily Mail. ‘After 20 years of trauma, chaos and addictions [and] ‘I felt I had no choice but to choose no contact due to the accusations.’

He added: ‘There will be an everlasting hope that you will find your own path to inner peace.’

Vogel, 70, described the estrangement she experienced with her 36-year-old daughter: ‘After 20 years of trauma, chaos, addictions and accusations, I felt I had no choice but to not communicate.’

Panettiere’s memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning comes out May 19

Vogel confirmed that he had not read Panettiere’s memoir, which will be published on May 19, and that it was not sent to him, possibly due to their estrangement.

Panettiere said she was ‘brutally honest’ in the book, saying her mother pushed her so hard that she doubled as her manager.

‘I was so afraid of him that I approached him and told him honestly about my feelings.’ [back then] He wasn’t going to give me any positive reaction. This is my way of doing it,” she told Us Weekly.

It also touches on her struggles with substance abuse, postpartum depression, and the sudden loss of her younger brother Jansen, who died unexpectedly in 2023. Jansen was 28 years old.

He suffered from an enlarged heart and aortic valve complications. Before his death, he was also struggling with substance abuse. Panettiere, on the other hand, struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.

“I was shocked at how bad it got,” he said, referring to his brother’s crack and heroin use. ‘When he said he put these two substances into his body, I fell to the ground. I should have understood what he was going through better than anyone else. And of all the people who could have saved him from dying, it had to be me.’

With his brother gone and his mother estranged, the actor is close to his father, Alan Lee ‘Skip’ Panettiere, and his stepmother, Mekdem.

‘My dad and I have a great relationship,’ he told the publication. ‘I actually went back to where I was born and raised in Rockland County and lived with my stepmother for a while, and I felt like being at home was punishing me again. Being around my family reminded me of who I am at my core.’

Panettiere split from Wladimir Klitschko in 2018 after nine years (pictured in 2013)

Speaking about his current relationship with Klitschko and his daughter Kaya, the actor said: ‘I have an incredible relationship with both of them.’

Panettiere also opened up about her struggle with postpartum depression, during which she felt she ‘wasn’t able to be a half-decent mother’ to her daughter Kaya, now 11.

“I was nowhere near the mother I swore to myself I would one day be, and it was devastating,” Panettiere said.

‘[It] It was heartbreaking. I’m such a perfectionist in so many ways that it was very, very important for me to at least be a good mother. And it was such a crushing blow when, in my mind, I couldn’t even be a half-decent mother.’

She lost custody of her daughter to her ex-fiancé and retired heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko, who is living in Ukraine while seeking treatment. She and Klitschko split amicably in 2018 after a nine-year on-and-off relationship.

As of today, he maintains a healthy relationship with his daughter and ex-girlfriend.

‘I have an incredible relationship with both of them,’ he said. ‘I’m so grateful to Wlad. We are very close and have had a deep friendship and relationship since I met him when I was 19.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to Panettiere’s representative for comment.