Hayden Panettiere’s childhood history has resurfaced following her sudden passing at 36, with fans now looking back at the enormous pressures she faced from the moment she entered Hollywood.
Keep reading to learn more.
Hayden Panettiere was introduced to show business by her mother, Lesley Vogel, when she was just eight months old. By 11 months, she had booked her first commercial, and by four she was acting on One Life to Live. At six, she joined Guiding Light.
By the time she was 11, she had reportedly appeared in more than 50 commercials and had become the primary breadwinner for her family.
Years later, Hayden opened up about what growing up that way had done to her.
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“I was gr**med. I was like a little soldier,” she said earlier this year, explaining that she was raised to simply follow instructions: memorize the dialogue, hit her marks and never say no.
“No was never an option,” she once said.
She said she never really had the opportunity to decide whether acting was what she wanted because it had been her entire life from infancy.
That childhood experience also influenced how she raised her own daughter, Kaya. Hayden said she would support Kaya if she ever wanted to act, but wanted her to experience life outside Hollywood first.
Her relationship with her mother eventually broke down
Lesley Vogel played a huge role in launching Hayden’s career and managed her for years. But when Hayden was 19 and starring on Heroes, she decided she wanted to separate their professional and personal relationships.
She wanted her mother to simply be her mom, rather than her manager.
