Hayden Panettiere is shedding light on a deeply traumatic chapter of her early career, revealing how a person she considered a protector allegedly orchestrated a dangerous encounter when she was just a teenager.
During an emotional appearance on the *On Purpose with Jay Shetty* podcast, the 36-year-old actress detailed the shocking moment, which she also recounts in her upcoming memoir, *This Is Me: A Reckoning*.
According to Panettiere, the incident took place on a boat when she was only 18. Despite already having lived a full life in the spotlight as the star of shows like *Heroes*, she admitted she wasn’t mature enough to spot the danger ahead of time. “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,” she said.
The actress described being lured downstairs by a female friend she had “grown to trust,” under the false impression of a surprise. Instead, she was escorted into a very small cabin and physically placed into a bed next to an undressed man who was “very famous”. Panettiere made the decision not to name either individual in the interview.
“[He] had his hands [clasped behind his head] like this was just, you know, an average day for him,” she recalled, describing how casually the older man behaved during the ordeal.
Panettiere told Shetty that she waited for her so-called friend to leave the room before a survival instinct kicked in. “That lion in me, that fire in me… my hair stood on end and I became ferocious,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is not happening’”.
Although she managed to bolt and find a hiding spot elsewhere on the vessel, she realized there was no true escape since they were quite literally out at sea. Panettiere noted the chilling realization that no one else on the boat seemed to view the setup as abnormal. “There was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation. I realized that this was nothing new to them,” she admitted.
More than the disturbing nature of the setup itself, Panettiere revealed that the most lasting wound came from the personal betrayal of the person who placed her in that position. She explained that when she finally found someone she fully trusted in the harsh industry, she held onto them for dear life. “To be betrayed like that is just an awful feeling,” she said.
This harrowing revelation is just one of the highly personal topics Panettiere covers in her new book. The same week, the actress also publicly came out as bisexual in a separate interview, explaining she never felt it was the right time previously due to the pressure to appear “perfect”.
*This Is Me: A Reckoning* is set for release this month.
