Hayden Panettiere’s boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, drained the actress emotionally and financially, even pawning some of her possessions and keeping others in a storage unit, her estranged mom Lesley Vogel claims.

She told The New York Times as much and said pressuring her daughter to cut ties with the convicted domestic abuser drove them apart and contributed to their most recent estrangement.

Hickerson was sleeping in a bedroom of the South Carolina AirBnB where his brother, Zach Hickerson, found the 36-year-old Panettiere dead in the living room last Sunday. While an investigation is ongoing, authorities have found no sign of trauma that would have led to the “Nashville” actor’s death. A toxicology report is pending.

Publicly, Panettiere had said she had called it quits with Hickerson for good. When she launched her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” at a New York City Barnes & Noble in May, store staff was specifically instructed not to let Hickerson in if he showed up, sources told The New York Times.

But behind the scenes, the two had gotten back together and were going full throttle as a couple, keeping their rekindled romance under wraps for fear of its potential drag on Panettiere’s career, sources told TMZ. Members of her inner circle were concerned.

Hickerson was in financial trouble after pleading no contest to two felony counts of domestic violence against Panettiere in 2021 and declared bankruptcy a year later. Panettiere at some point hired him as her personal assistant, TMZ reported.

Although investigators have been spotted at Hickerson’s family home, he has not been implicated in Panettiere’s death. Hickerson’s attorney, Sloan Ellis, cautioned against a rush to judgment as the investigation unfolds.

Vogel had pushed back on Panettiere’s involvement with Hickerson about a year ago while helping the “Heroes” actress through a medical crisis, she told The New York Times. Panettiere, plagued by a “pins and needles” sensation in her lower extremities, was having trouble walking. She and Vogel made the rounds of doctors, and treatments such as massage and acupuncture, to try and relieve the symptoms, The New York Times reported.

Vogel said that’s when she learned of the pawned possessions, including a vintage guitar. An anonymous source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the newspaper that Hickerson had cashed in on some of Panettiere’s belongings. Vogel further claimed that Panettiere had been shocked to learn that her things were in Hickerson’s storage unit.

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