Hayden Panettiere's estranged mother cut off contact with the actress because of her relationship with Brian Hickerson.

The Heroes star - who passed away last weekend at the age of 36 - had cited the strains of having Lesley Vogel also manage her career for their difficult relationship, her mom has insisted she had to "break away" after growing frustated at the "codependent" bond she had with her on/off partner and their increasing drug use.

Lesley told the Daily Mail online: "When Brian came into her life, the changes started to occur. Very early in the game, I thought he's a modern-day gigolo. I know what he's after.

"I would talk to both of them about it. I would say, 'This is a codependent relationship, and it is not healthy for either of you.

"My sadness is that everything that I did, her father did, friends did, business people did - we could not break that codependent bond. It is so much more powerful than people understand.

"When Hayden comes out and talks trash about Mom, it's because I had to break away.

"I had to go no contact because I could not help her anymore. I could not change this pattern, and believe me, I tried. I didn't leave because I didn't care about her or didn't love her. I put so much effort in trying to save her. You cannot save someone who doesn't want to be saved."

Lesley thinks Hayden gravitated towards Brian because he made her feel less inadequate than she had in her relationshipw ith Wladimir Klitschko, the father of the Scream 4 actress' 11-year-old daughter Kaya.

She said: "Her child's father is Wladimir Klitschko,' Vogel said. 'He is one of the most exceptional people I've ever met.

"But when you're not feeling good about yourself, you don't want to be with someone who makes you feel worse about yourself. So she found a loser. So every day she didn't feel like she was failing, and he latched onto that and I suppose said everything to her she needed to hear."

She noted Brian had "no career" and "no money".

She added: "I know he put pressure on. I know he threatened. I know he did a lot of things."

Brian and his brother Zach were present when Hayden passed away, and Lesley believes he has questions to answer about what happened.

Lesley claimed Brian - who has previously served jail time relating to domestic violence incidents involving Hayden - had told police the actress was doing her make-up in the apartment when he went out to run an errand and then took a nap on his return. She alleged he then told cops his brother Zach had arrived at some point and Hayden was then found unresponsive.

She said: "I don't know how you can take a nap near someone who's dying and not realise something's wrong. How do you do that?

"When the EMTs came it was for a cardiac arrest. People in cardiac arrest aren't just lying still. They make noise.

"I think Brian called his brother. My opinion. I think he knew she was deceased. Called his brother, and tried and built this story."