The upcoming memoir of Hayden Panettiere has already stirred a storm before its release. And now, the actress’s strained family history has returned to the public conversation.
As Hayden prepares to share her side in ‘This Is Me: A Reckoning‘, her estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, has pushed back with the claims of her own. The reaction is clear that this mother-daughter rift is far from settled.
Lesley Vogel Questions What Hayden Panettiere’s Memoir Is Really About
Lesley Vogel reacted while talking to Page Six about Hayden Panettiere’s tell-all and accused the actress of giving her “20 years of trauma.” She also suggested that the memoir may be more about selling books than repairing wounds. That strengthened her position on the project.
Lesley unloaded over ‘This Is Me: A Reckoning‘. She said, “There is a personality ‘style’ which manifests as a need for control, entitlement, and a lack of empathy. The major fear is that someone will see through the mask they present to the world and discover who they truthfully are.”
She told Page Six that there is no fixing the “condition” she was referring to. According to Lesley, years of support and encouragement “will never be enough”. And she eventually felt she had no choice but to go no-contact.
Lesley continued, “When someone leaves, the smear campaign begins. The accusations, anger, belittling, gaslighting, etc., are the classic signs of this behavior style. The craving for drama and punitive action is traditional and to be expected.” Her comments came after she recently questioned Hayden’s bisexuality claims. And now it is clear that she is also upset about how the memoir presents their fractured relationship.
Panettiere Says She Was “Groomed” To Be A Child Star
Hayden has been speaking about the experiences that pushed her to write the memoir. It also included what it felt like to grow up in the public eye. She told The Hollywood Reporter that she first realized she had become tabloid material when she was only 16. That was after a paparazzi photographer photographed her wearing shorts and bending over. The photo later appeared with commentary about her supposed cellulite.
In case you missed it: “They Really Wrote My Life Into It”: Hayden Panettiere Says ‘Nashville’ Exploited Her Real-Life Struggles With Alcoholism And Broken Family For TV Drama
After reviewing the comments on the photo, Hayden decided to start filtering out press about herself. Still, she admitted that she could not block everything. “But, sometimes, things would get through,” she says. “My publicist would get a call asking for comment about something in my life. And I’d have to decide, do I go no comment and let them put out whatever version they want? Or do I comment to get ahead of it, and talk about things that I really don’t want to?”.
The actress said the years that followed brought countless moments of misinformation. That history eventually gave her the bravery to sit down and write ‘This Is Me: A Reckoning‘. In the book, Hayden delves into her experience as a child actor. All of it was at the whim of an overly eager stage mom. Her years on hit television shows like ‘Heroes‘ and ‘Nashville, the collapse of parts of her personal life, and the substance abuse issues that stemmed from it all.
Hayden also acknowledged that releasing the memoir has forced her to revisit painful parts of her life. She said, “One of the things that I was most terrified about was that I knew what was going to come along with it”. “I had to sit with myself and make a decision. And I realized it was more important for me to share my stories and to wipe the slate clean.”
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