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Hayden Panettiere speaks out on 'undressed, very famous' man putting her in bed when she was just 18
Michelle H.
Hayden Panettiere has opened up about a traumatic experience from her late teens, revealing she realized she was “in danger” while aboard a boat with people she trusted.
The 36-year-old actress discussed the incident during the May 11 episode of Jay Shetty’s podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, while speaking about her upcoming memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, which is set for release on May 19.
During the conversation, Shetty referenced a chapter in the memoir in which Panettiere recalls being taken onto a boat by a friend before being led into a room with an older man. “You write about a moment in your career where a friend of yours takes you onto a boat,” Shetty said. “You’re led to a room which has an older man in it and then basically told to perform sexual acts."
Panettiere says she realized she was "in danger"
Panettiere reflected on how young and vulnerable she was at the time, despite believing she was mature enough to handle herself.
“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 said her “perspective completely shifted” once she realized she was “in danger,” though by that point she was already trapped in the situation.
“I was quite literally out to sea,” she said.
Panettiere described the experience as “shocking,” explaining that nothing earlier in the evening had made her suspect something was wrong.
“There was no hints of anything like that happening,” she recalled. “So it took me by surprise.”
Someone she trusted brought her aboard
According to Panettiere, the person who brought her onto the boat was someone she deeply trusted.
“It was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back,” she shared.
The actress recalled being escorted downstairs into a “very small room,” where she said she was placed into bed beside an “undressed” man.
“She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous,” Panettiere said, adding that he appeared to behave “like this was just an average day for him.”
Panettiere said her instincts immediately kicked in as she tried to get herself out of the situation.
“That lion in me, that fire in me … my hair stood on end and I became ferocious,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘This is not happening.’ ”
She felt trapped on the boat
The actress said she fled the room and tried to hide elsewhere on the boat, though she quickly realized there was no easy escape.
“There was no jumping off and swimming away,” she said. “And there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation. I realized that this was nothing new to them.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Panettiere reflected on the emotional fallout of feeling betrayed by someone she once relied on.
“When you really find somebody that you trust, you hold on to them for dear life and you feel so lucky,” she said. “So to be betrayed like that is just an awful feeling.”
Panettiere’s memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, will be released on May 19.