Hayden Panettiere has opened up about a disturbing incident years ago, claiming she was forced to get into bed with a naked actor by someone she had “grown to trust.”
The Nashville alum, who was 18 at the time, recalled the experience during a recent appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast ahead of the release of her forthcoming memoir, This is Me: A Reckoning, in which she explores the claims in further detail.
Now 36, Panettiere reflected on the incident, saying: “Even though I felt I could make healthy decisions, safe decisions [at that age], I wasn’t capable of being fully aware of what was going on around me.
“It wasn’t until I found myself in predicaments that I realized my perspective completely shifted and I realized I was in danger. By the time I realized I was in danger, I was quite literally out to sea.”
Panettiere, who was on a boat “having a great time,” continued: “There was no hints of anything like that happening, so I was shocked. It took me by surprise. I was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back… [we] walked down the stairs. It was a small room. She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous and this was just an average day for him and this is something that happens all the time.”
Once her friend left, the Bring It On star said she let the lion inside her come out. “My hair stood on end and I became ferocious. I was like, ‘This is not happening,’” Panettiere continued.
“But I had nowhere to hide. I bolted. I hid wherever I could think to hide on a boat. There was no jumping off and swimming away. and I realized that there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation, that this was nothing new to them.”
Panettiere is a former child actor whose early credits include the soap operas One Life to Live and Guiding Light, as well as Disney’s 1998 animated feature A Bug’s Life and the 2000 football film Remember The Titans. However, it wasn’t until her breakout role in the four-season sci-fi series Heroes, which ran from 2006 to 2010, that she gained worldwide recognition. More recently, she’s starred in a handful of horror films: Scream VI (2023), Amber Alert (2024) and A Breed Apart (2005).
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Currently, she is on a press tour promoting her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, which was originally expected to arrive May 12 but is now out May 19.
The tell-all book includes a detailed account of Panettiere’s life and career, and her struggles with postpartum depression, addiction and recovery, trauma, domestic abuse and loss.
