Hayden Panettiere is opening up about deeply disturbing experiences she says she endured while navigating Hollywood at a young age.
In her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” the actress revisits painful moments involving older men in the industry, including one shocking incident at a private party that left her horrified.
The “Heroes” actress shared details about an unsettling experience she says happened when she was 19 years old.
According to Panettiere, she attended a private party with a friend and quickly began feeling uneasy while interacting with a group of older men.
In her memoir, she explained that the men were “in their forties and fifties” and that she “sensed these men’s eyes on me and it made me uncomfortable.”
The actress said the atmosphere at the gathering changed the way she viewed herself in that moment. Per the Daily Mail, she described feeling like a “young commodity ripe for the picking in that moment” before deciding it was time to leave the party.
As she was preparing to go, one of the men approached her. Panettiere described him as a “well-respected” Oscar-winning actor and director.
According to her account, the man attempted to get her attention by claiming he had a “big wad of gum on his pants.”
The situation immediately turned disturbing. “I looked down and recoiled. This well-respected, award-winning actor’s testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly,” Panettiere wrote in the memoir.
The actress said she left immediately afterward and did not even stop to tell her friend goodbye before leaving the party behind.
Hollywood No Longer Felt Safe
Hayden Panettiere admitted that the incident left a lasting impression because, until then, she had largely felt protected around the powerful men she encountered in Hollywood.
“Up to that moment, men in Hollywood had always been kind and respectful around me. There may have been a peck on the lips here and an inappropriate comment there, but nothing had crossed a line,” she wrote.
Even though the encounter disturbed her, the actress said she chose not to discuss it with her friend afterward. Instead, she convinced herself the experience was something she should simply move past.
According to Panettiere, she assumed “some older men had just grown up with no manners.”
The revelation arrives as the actress continues speaking candidly about traumatic experiences from earlier in her career. Panettiere, who recently came out as bisexual, has been discussing several painful chapters from her life while promoting her memoir.
Her latest claims come shortly after she emotionally revisited another shocking incident she says happened when she was just 18 years old.
Hayden Panettiere Opens Up About Boat Incident
Earlier this month, Panettiere appeared on Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast, where she discussed another encounter detailed in “This Is Me: A Reckoning.”
During the interview, Shetty referenced a moment from the book involving a boat trip and a much older celebrity.
“You write about a moment in your career where a friend of yours takes you onto a boat. You’re led to a room which has an older man in it and then basically told to perform sexual acts,” Shetty said.
Panettiere reflected on how young and inexperienced she truly was at the time, despite believing she understood the world around her.
“The fact that I was 18, even though I’d lived such a huge life and I thought I was oh so mature at 18… scientifically, your frontal lobes don’t develop until we’re what, 25, 26?” she said. “So even though I felt like I could make healthy decisions, safe decisions, I wasn’t capable of being fully aware of what was going on around me.”
The actress explained that the person who brought her into the situation was someone she trusted deeply at the time.
Hayden Panettiere Says Trusted Friend Betrayed Her
According to Panettiere, the individual who arranged the meeting was someone she viewed as a “protector.” She said that trust made the experience even more devastating.
The actress claimed the friend “physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous.”
She recalled being led downstairs into a smaller room before being placed in bed beside the unidentified celebrity. Panettiere said the older man behaved “like this was just an average day for him.”
That realization immediately triggered panic.
Panettiere described becoming “ferocious” as she processed what was happening around her.
“That lion in me, that fire in me… my hair stood on end…” she recalled.
The actress said she instantly knew she needed to escape the situation.
She added, “I was like, ‘This is not happening’” before running out of the room and trying to hide.
Fame Came Fast For The Young Actress
Hayden Panettiere admitted that the terrifying moment made her realize how powerless she felt at the time. Because the incident happened aboard a boat, she said there was no easy way to remove herself from the situation entirely.
“There was no jumping off and swimming away,” she explained. “And there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation. I realized that this was nothing new to them.”
The actress rose to fame in 2006 after landing the role of Claire Bennet in “Heroes” at just 17 years old. Her portrayal of the cheerleader with regenerative powers quickly turned her into one of television’s biggest young stars.
Now 36, Panettiere is revisiting some of the darkest moments from her early years in Hollywood as she shares her story publicly for the first time.
