Lesley Vogel fiercely addressed detractors criticizing her response to the tragic loss of her daughter, Hayden Panettiere.

During an emotional interview with Rhiannon Ally on “Good Morning America,” the former soap star declared, “To those passing judgment, I say, ‘You have no say in how I grieve my second child. That journey is mine alone.’”

Vogel shared that she is still coming to terms with Panettiere’s passing, adding, “I suspect the gravity will fully hit me in time.”

Reflecting on the initial shock of the news, Vogel recounted how she felt utterly “numb” and disconnected upon receiving the call about her “Heroes” star daughter’s death.

“I’m still struggling to accept this as reality. Some parts of my mind rebel against it, and I know it will be a long journey ahead,” she stated, needing a moment off-camera to collect her tears.

Vogel also said she wants her daughter to be remembered for “the talented, you know, beautiful, outgoing, intelligent woman she really was.”

In the same interview, she went after her daughter’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson.

The “Ice Princess” star died after suffering an apparent “overdose” at a luxury apartment complex in Greenville, SC, on Aug. 16. She was 36.

Hayden’s father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed “the tragic passing” with “profound sadness” in a statement to Page Six.

A police report obtained by Page Six on Aug. 17 revealed that Hayden — who struggled with “severe health issues” in recent months and was still in the throes of addiction — was taking a “bag of medication” at the time of her death. The types of medications were redacted from the report.

The report also revealed that Brian and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were with Hayden at the time of her death. According to the report, Brian “did not become emotional” until she was officially declared dead.

Since then, Vogel has been vocal about her animosity towards Brian, claiming he is somehow involved in her daughter’s death.

“I think Hayden was an amazingly talented person in so many departments,” Vogel, 70, told NBC News on Aug. 18 in her first statement since Hayden’s death.

“And I think young people who grow up in the entertainment industry — it is a struggle, and it’s a very challenging industry, and it’s not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path.”

Speaking about Brian, she said, “This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson.”

Vogel also revealed she would be talking to a private detective.

On Aug. 20, Brian spoke out via his lawyer on the loss of Hayden, defending himself from accusations that he played a role in her death.

“Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,” his attorney, Sloan Ellis, told Page Six.

“As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play,” the statement continued. “Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.”

After Vogel faced backlash over her statement due to their estranged relationship, she said in a new statement to Entertainment Tonight, “Although my daughter and I were estranged, it was not for lack of care or love. It was due to the involvement of a toxic individual who I believe led to her death.”

She continued, “Hayden was a beautiful and talented young woman who unfortunately became involved with the wrong person, and although her family tried to extricate him from her life, we were unable to be successful.”

“I hope all remember Hayden for the beautiful human being inside her and her gift to the world from her time on this earth,” Vogel added. “My heart is with you, Hayden. Mama.”

She also cast doubt on Brian’s version of how Hayden died while they were staying in the same AirBnb and even claimed that he had “pawned” some of the actress’ belongings amid his ongoing financial issues.

While Brian has not commented on Hayden’s death aside from the statement through his attorney, Zach claimed that Brian used Narcan on the late actress and performed CPR on her when he discovered her unconscious.

“There are a lot of assumptions, speculations and accusations currently swirling,” Zach told TMZ on Friday.

The on-again, off-again, couple met in 2018 and had a tumultuous relationship. Brian was arrested multiple times for domestic violence against the “Remember the Titans” star, and she wrote about his abuse in her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning.”

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.

If you or someone you care about is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Today, a tense diplomatic confrontation emerged as Russia made a sharp threat in response to Britain’s decision to provide Ukraine with advanced missile technology.

Moscow alleges that the United Kingdom is now actively engaging in the conflict, coinciding with Andy Burnham’s arrival in Kyiv for his inaugural foreign visit. 

In a significant announcement, the Prime Minister confirmed that European defense giant MBDA has received authorization to divulge details on UK-manufactured components for the Scalp missile — France’s equivalent to the Storm Shadow.

Determined to stand firm, the Prime Minister emphasized the UK’s unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Vladimir Putin’s aggression, dismissing Russia’s warnings to Britain as utterly unacceptable.

Nonetheless, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov intensified the rhetoric, proclaiming, “Britain is actively taking part in this war, aligning itself with the Kyiv government.

‘Britain methodically and regularly pours fuel on the fire and methodically and regularly plots to prevent any progress in the peace process.’

He added that the Russian armed forces were intent on identifying ‘the production sites of such missiles, the production sites of other military equipment’ in order to destroy them.

It emerged over the weekend that the Russian ambassador has been withdrawn from London as relations deteriorate further.   

The UK’s decision means the ‘deep precision’ Scalp – which is built using both British and French technology – could now be produced locally in Ukraine.

The weapons are critical for long-range strikes reaching targets deep inside Russia. 

Giving a speech in front of St Sophia cathedral in Kyiv to mark the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, Mr Burnham compared the country’s resistance to the fight against Nazi Germany.

‘My nation kept the flame of European freedom alive in the 20th century, you hold that flame in the 21st,’ he said.

‘Despite Russia’s outrageous threats to my country, we will continue our support for Ukraine.’

In his first major speech on the international stage, Mr Burnham praised the ‘sheer strength’ of the Ukrainian people as ‘truly awesome’, and said that ‘this is the moment to keep up the pressure on Russia, the moment to squeeze their ability to fund this illegal war’.

‘Ukraine has been Europe’s protector, not a drain on our security but the front line in keeping Europe safe,’ he added.

‘The Ukrainian people deserve not just our continued support, but our gratitude and respect,’ he said, thanking Ukrainians for ‘the incredible stand’ they have taken.

Ukraine has marked its Independence Day with huge drone attacks on three major Russian online shopping hubs.

In a defiant speech marking Ukraine’s 35th Independence Day in front of Saint Sophia, Mr Zelensky said: ‘Ukrainians will not be cobblestones under the feet of tsars and rulers. Ukrainians will not submit.’

Mr Zelensky gave awards to members of the military and posthumous acknowledgements to family members of soldiers killed in the war sparked by Russia’s invasion.

He also gave honours to world leaders present, including one to Mr Burnham titled Honorary Distinction to the British People, Gratitude of the Ukrainian People.

Mr Burnham, who travelled to Ukraine overnight by train, laid a wreath and flowers at the graves of Ukrainian soldiers at the National Military Cemetery, as part of events marking the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

During the ceremony, he spoke to Finnish president Alexander Stubb, who told the Prime Minister ‘we are in a war period’ and warned of Ukraine’s difficulties repelling Russian ballistic missile attacks.

Later today Mr Burnham will chair his first meeting of the ‘coalition of the willing’, and accept an award on behalf of the British people recognising the UK’s support.

It follows the Kremlin warning of ‘consequences’ over UK drones being used by Ukraine to strike far into Russia.

Moscow said the deeper Britain became involved, ‘the higher price it will pay’.

Mr Burnham said: ‘On Ukraine’s 35th anniversary of independence, its people should be in no doubt: The UK is behind you.

‘In the fight and the rebuilding to come, we stand with Ukraine. Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve. We will not back down till there is a lasting peace.’

But Russia said relations with Britain are at ‘an unprecedentedly low level’ as it ordered its ambassador Andrey Kelin back to Moscow after seven years in post.

Mr Kelin has accused the UK of choosing ‘a path of confrontation’ with Russia.

Mr Burnham said: ‘Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve. We will not back down until there is a just and lasting peace.’

Ukrainian drones appeared to hit another Russian online retailer today, following strikes over three nights in a row last week.

Kyiv has been waging a campaign against Wildberries – dubbed ‘Russia’s Amazon’ – and Ozon, claiming they have been supplying components to the military.

Ozon, Russia’s second largest online retailer, said ‘a fire broke out’ at a logistics centre in Makhachkala, southern Russia, following a drone attack at around 5am.

Mr Burnham’s visit comes as Mr Zelensky faces domestic political strife caused by a rift with his former defence minister.

Mykhailo Fedorov was sacked last month after reportedly falling out with the head of Ukraine’s armed forces.

His ousting triggered weeks of mass protests, and he has called for Mr Zelensky to hold elections, arguing democracy ‘should not be the hostage of Putin’.

He has also called for Mr Zelensky to face questions over what he knew about alleged corruption in his inner circle.

Last week, Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities said they had uncovered a money-laundering plot, leading Mr Zelensky to sack one of his senior officials over their alleged involvement.

The president has denied any involvement, telling reporters over the weekend: ‘The heads of anti-corruption agencies have zero questions for me.

‘They understand perfectly well that I am not involved in anything like that.’

Touring broadcast studios for the Government this morning, defence minister Luke Pollard told Times Radio: ‘We’ve already seen Russian activities against the United Kingdom, we’ve seen them loitering over our critical undersea cables, we’ve seen cyber attacks on our systems, we’ve also seen them prosecute an illegal war against one of our close friends.

‘So am I surprised that Russia doesn’t like people supporting Ukraine? No, I’m not. Will that stop us from supporting our friends in Ukraine? No, it won’t either.’

Mr Pollard said when to have an election was ‘an internal matter for the people of Ukraine, the government of Ukraine’. 

‘If I look at the parallel United Kingdom during the Second World War, while there was war waging in Europe, we didn’t have elections,’ he said.

He added: ‘Having spoken to both President Zelensky and the former defence minister Fedorov in the past, I know that both of them are committed to the defence of their nation and seeing through their nation to get to a peaceful conclusion to the conflict.’

The next time your go-to streaming service questions your commitment with “Are you still watching?”, you might want to pause and reconsider before hitting “Yes”.

Since televisions became household staples across America, medical professionals, along with countless concerned parents, have cautioned that excessive screen exposure could adversely affect our physical health, cognitive abilities, and social interactions.

But just how valid are these concerns that have persisted over the years?

For decades, scientists have delved into what transpires within our brains and bodies from extensive screen engagement. Here’s what their research reveals about how much television might be too excessive for our well-being.

It worsens executive functioning

Spending extensive hours in front of a television during early adulthood could be associated with diminished mental acuity as we age.

A 2015 study followed 3,247 people ages 18 to 30 for 25 years to investigate the effects of TV viewing and physical activity on midlife cognition.

Rearchers administered three cognitive tests to the participants, assesings processing speed, executive function and verbal memory.

The researchers found that watching more than three hours of TV a day and having low levels of physical activity in early adulthood were associated with worse executive function and processing speed in midlife.

The one exception? Heavy TV viewers did not perform worse on tests of verbal memory.

The findings were among the first to suggest that these behaviors could be important targets for preventing cognitive aging before middle age — but the researchers cautioned that the study could not prove that TV watching or physical inactivity actually caused cognitive decline.

It raises dementia risk

In a 2023 study, researchers found that people who watched a moderate amount of TV — two to three hours a day — or a high amount — more than three hours a day — had a higher risk of dementia than those who watched zero to one hour daily.

Those who watched the most TV and also had with family history of dementia had a 42% higher dementia risk, compared with a 30% higher risk among those without a family history.

But these studies come with an important caveat: an association doesn’t necessarily mean TV is causing dementia — and it’s possible people in the early stages of cognitive decline could be more likely to spend time watching TV.

It reduces gray matter

As it turns out, the “TV will rot your brain” warning may have a little science behind it.

Researchers set out to determine whether long-term TV viewing in early to mid-adulthood was associated with gray mater volume in the brain during midlife.

Gray matter, a major part of the central nervous system found in the brain and spinal cord, helps process information, control movement, manage senses and regulate emotions.

Over 20 years, researchers evaluated 599 participants’ TV-viewing habits and later measured the volume of their frontal cortex, entorhinal cortex, hippocampal region and total gray matter.

People who watched the most TV had lower gray matter volume in the frontal and entorhinal cortices, as well as lower total gray matter volume.

“Individuals who watched, on average, about an hour and a half more daily TV than their peers throughout mid-to-late adulthood saw their brain volume reduced by approximately .5%,” co-author Ryan Dougherty told John Hopkins Magazine.

“That percentage may seem small, but prevailing scientific thought says preserving our brain integrity can prolong the time until we notice age-related cognitive decline.”

It may disrupt sleep

Research suggests TV may affect sleep by suppressing melatonin and pushing back bedtime, particularly in younger people.

In one small experimental study, researchers examined how watching TV affected melatonin and cortisol secretion, hormones involved in the body’s sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin, which promotes sleep, is known to be suppressed by bright light, including light from TV screens.

Another small study limited university students and elderly adults to 30 minutes of TV a day for one week. The university students went to bed significantly earlier and slept significantly longer within the intervention, while the change had no effect on sleep duration among older adults.

Still, researchers say more evidence is needed to understand the relationship between TV viewing and sleep and how it might affect cardiometabolic health.

So… how much is too much?

There is no universally established “safe” limit or threshold for TV viewing, but many studies examining its potential health effects start to raise concerns somewhere around two to four-plus hours a day.

A 2026 study found that more than 2.06 hours of TV viewing a day was associated with a 17% higher hazard of all-cause dementia.

Other research has raised concerns at higher levels of viewing. A 2023 study found that watching 2-3 hours of TV a day was associated with higher dementia risk compared with watching zero to one hour.

Another study of adults ages 50 and older found that watching more than 3.5 hours of TV a day was associated with poorer verbal memory six years later.

Additionally, a 2025 study found that cognitive impairment was particularly apparent among people watching four or more hours of TV per day.

Three years following the heartbreaking loss of Sandra Bullock’s longtime partner, Bryan Randall, due to ALS, the cherished actress has started to speak publicly about his devastating diagnosis and her emotional journey through mourning.

This moment marks a significant change for Bullock, who, until her guest appearance on Jason Bateman’s Smartless podcast this week, had maintained a notably low profile for nearly two years.

The 62-year-old Oscar-winning actress and mother of two had largely stepped out of public view following Randall’s death, only surfacing recently to promote her upcoming film, Practical Magic 2.

Indeed, the sequel to the cult 1998 classic – set to feature Bullock in her first leading role in four years – coincides with a period where she feels prepared to discuss Randall’s passing, as sources revealed to the Daily Mail.

“Sandra is finally healing, which is part of why she has taken on Practical Magic 2,” shared one insider.

‘She felt it was time to talk about Bryan, like it is okay now. She doesn’t mind opening up about him, as she wants to honor him in the best way with sweet memories,’ they said. 

It was August 2023 when Randall, a former model and photographer, succumbed to the fast-progressing nervous system disease at 57, his family revealed in a statement at the time.

For Bullock, the three years she spent caring for her long-term partner, who was diagnosed with ALS amid the Covid-19 pandemic, were marked by ‘pretty dark’ periods of isolation, she shared. 

‘Sandra really closed herself off when Bryan got sick, she was all about him and her kids. Her personality changed too, the laughs stopped coming. She was a much more serious person,’ the source continued.

The couple, who met in 2015 when Bullock hired him to photograph her son Louis’ birthday party, had already been together for five years and raised her two adopted children together at the time of his diagnosis.

But Randall’s desire to keep his deteriorating health private left Bullock feeling ‘isolated,’ between organizing his medical care and parenting her kids during the pandemic.

‘During Covid, Sandra was really scared. She was always isolated and lonely during that period and the couple of years that followed,’ a second insider told the Daily Mail.

Bullock confided in her sister, Vermont-based pastry chef Gesine Bullock-Prado, and her sister’s husband, storyboard illustrator Ray Prado, who she said were the only people who ‘knew for a while’ about Randall’s diagnosis.

Eventually, Bullock said she also informed Hollywood pal Jennifer Aniston, along with Bateman and his wife Amanda Anka, about her partner’s condition. 

Despite being ‘very close’ to her sister, however, the source acknowledged that Bullock was still ‘pretty isolated’ during that time.

It likely didn’t help matters that Randall had become an important ‘father figure’ to Bullock’s two adopted kids, son Louis, 16, and daughter Laila, 12.

The actress became a first-time mom in January 2010 when she adopted three-month-old Louis, and again in December 2015 when she adopted two-year-old Laila. 

Bullock was previously married to motorcycle builder Jesse James in 2005, though their marriage ended in a highly publicized divorce in 2010 after it was revealed James had cheated.

Randall marked Bullock’s first serious, public relationship since the devastating divorce, as she shared on the podcast that her daughter saw Randall as ‘a father figure.’ He also has an adult daughter named Skylar from a previous relationship.

‘Bryan was an extremely nice person,’ the second source added.

While Bullock and Randall were never legally married, the Daily Mail exclusively revealed the pair exchanged ‘vows’ on the beach in the Bahamas back in 2017.

Three years after his death, some fans may now be left wondering how Bullock will be able to move on from the tragic loss of her life partner, who she previously described as the ‘love of [her] life’ in 2021. 

But it appears that part of Bullock’s healing journey includes returning to work, as she’s set to make her return to the big screen this September with Practical Magic 2.

The Daily Mail previously reported that Bullock, who hadn’t starred in a movie since the 2022 adventure-comedy The Lost City, would make her long-awaited return to acting ‘in her own time and on her own terms,’ especially if there was a project she couldn’t pass up.

Back in April, Bullock surprised fans when she made her debut on Instagram, sharing behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the Practical Magic 2 set. She has also slowly begun to re-enter the public eye, attending events like CinemaCon with Kidman last April and appearing on Bateman’s podcast. 

While the first insider suggested that Bullock may feel a little ‘awkward’ diving back into Hollywood after her years-long hiatus, the star’s return to the spotlight is a welcomed change for fans.

‘She has to do press again, which she has not done in a while, so that is awkward for her,’ they said. ‘That is why she started her Instagram page. Everyone was like, “You have to do it.”‘

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Bullock for comment.