August 25, 2026 — 8:50amHayden Panettiere’s mother says she was “just numb” after hearing news of her daughter’s death, as she addressed the fractured relationship between the pair.Speaking publicly for the first time since Panettiere’s death last week at the age of 36, Vogel told ABC News in the US on Sunday (local time) that her critics were “haters” who “don’t have a right to tell me how to mourn the loss of my second child, that’s my domain”.Former child stars (front, from left) Christy Carlson Romano, Anna Paquin and Melissa Gilbert have spoken out since the deaths of (back, from left) Hayden Panettiere, Michelle Trachtenberg and Daveigh Chase.The mother and daughter were largely estranged since Panettiere, at 19, told Vogel she no longer wanted to be managed by her. “You owe me,” her mother responded, according to Panettiere’s memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, released in May.In the book, Panettiere also recounts struggling with childhood stardom before turning to drugs and alcohol as she got older.In May, as the memoir was released, Panettiere said trying to maintain a relationship with her mother had been “tough”. Vogel responded by saying she was following a “no-contact rule” based on professional advice.In her interview with ABC News, Vogel said Panettiere was happy until she was 17, but then, “I started seeing her going downhill.”Panettiere died on August 17, 2026. An official cause of death has not been released. AP“As she got older, then it wasn’t my voice any more. I wasn’t in charge of her choices,” Vogel said. “I tried to give her the best advice I could, but again, you know, any young person, teen, come on, they want to be liberated. And I get that. I did get that.”Panettiere’s death has led to fresh concerns about the mental health of child stars and prompted a group of former child actors to call out Hollywood for failing to protect them.Former child stars speak outLeading the charge is Anna Paquin, who, more than three decades ago, became one of the youngest actors to win an Oscar for her breakout performance in The Piano. “It’s not a coincidence that so many former, specifically pre-sexualised female, child ‘stars’ have profoundly sad lives and untimely ends,” Paquin wrote on Instagram.Paquin’s note, posted days after Panettiere died from a suspected overdose and following Michelle Trachtenberg’s death last year and Daveigh Chase’s death in June, called for children’s welfare to be prioritised when young actors were performing intense and complex roles.“We were not as protected by the ‘systems’ that look great on paper as we are supposed to be. RIP [Panettiere, Trachtenberg, Chase] and too many others,” Paquin said in her post. “It’s a strange small club we belong to, and you are worthy of support, no matter how our industry made us feel.”It’s a sentiment Even Stevens actor Christy Carlson Romano echoed in an essay for Elle last week.“I couldn’t sleep the other night,” Romano wrote. “I picked up my phone. Hayden Panettiere died. Crushed. Another performer I grew up with, gone too soon.”Panettiere (second from left) and Romano (right) with fellow actors Raven (left) and Kirsten Storms.WireImage for ABC Cable Networks GroupRomano said child actors shared the feeling of being exposed to high levels of rejection while also expected to have exceptional careers.“Those of us who make it are given the adoration of saints – and then, if we don’t climb to A-list fast enough, we’re torn down … Is it any wonder so many of us struggle with addiction? The industry gives us the wound and then acts surprised when we reach for something to treat it,” she wrote.Romano compared early fame to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head injuries, typically affecting boxing, rugby, soccer and AFL athletes – not in a diagnostic sense, but because the damage stems from its repetitive nature.“We now have language for youth sports: protocols, helmets, parents worried about concussions. But we have almost no language for what happens when stress, scrutiny, rejection, adult pressure and the collapse of privacy become the architecture of a childhood,” she wrote.“Responsibility gets passed around. Stage parents blame producers, producers blame parents, networks blame culture, and culture then blames the child when the child becomes an adult in pain.“By then, the young performer is no longer cute enough to protect. They are a cautionary tale.”Little House star weighs inIn a Substack article titled “Enough is Enough” published at the weekend and dedicated to “Hayden, Mishy and Daveigh”, the Little House on the Prairie actor Melissa Gilbert expressed her grief over losing a fellow child star.“We all know the stories of how the entertainment industry uses, abuses, exploits and then throws away its youngest, but for some reason, this trend is getting worse,” said Gilbert, who added that she believed smartphones were a reason for it.Gilbert as Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House on the Prairie.Getty ImagesGilbert further questioned where the union, collective outrage and regulation were amid the conversations about how young actors cope after they found fame.What protections do child stars have?According to publication Backstage, there are no federal laws protecting child actors in the US.While there are national regulations mandating the conditions a child can legally work in the US, entertainment is the only industry exempt. This has led to child actors’ protections being governed state-to-state.“It really seems like no one cares enough to enact real change,” Gilbert said. “At least, not until the next death and everyone talks about how sad they are and how we must do something, and then they forget and get on with their lives until it happens again and again and again.Kayla Olaya is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners