Hayden Panettiere exposed encounters with powerful Hollywood men as a teen before death

Just months before her tragic death aged 36, Hayden Panettiere revealed two incidents of predatory behaviour she experienced as a teenager in Hollywood.

Skip Panettiere, the father of the Heroes and Nashville actress and singer, described the “profound sadness” their family feels in a statement confirming his daughter’s death on Sunday, August 16. 

“She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her – and to the millions who watched her on screen,” the statement reads, with Skip asking for privacy “as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss”. 

The Greenville Police Department in South Carolina confirmed Panettiere’s death is currently under investigation, but at the time of writing, there are no signs of foul play. 

As tributes pour in for the late star, focus has turned to her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, where she opened up about being a child star, her breakout roles in Heroes and Nashville, and her personal battles with addiction, postpartum depression and the Hollywood system. 

Published this May, Panettiere spoke about multiple encounters she experienced as a teenager in the industry. 

Hayden Panettiere recalled incident with ‘famous’ singer at 18

At 18, Panettiere recalled her actress friend – referred to as Stella in the book – invited her to a super yacht party in the South of France. 

She described the first few days on the yacht as “heaven”, with champagne and food flowing and parties throughout the night. But towards the end of the stay, Stella asked her to come downstairs with her, saying, “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Panettiere wrote in her memoir, “I walked into the cabin and saw a famous thirtysomething British singer-songwriter lying in a bed. He was shirtless and propped up on a few pillows with his arms positioned behind his head. 

“From the waist down, he was covered by bedsheets, and I could see the outline of his body underneath. Oh my God, I thought. Is he naked under there? Stella leaned down and whispered in my ear. ‘I want you to get in bed with him. He has a huge d*ck.’

“She pulled back the covers on the unoccupied side of the bed, and I did as I was told. My thoughts were a blur, but I’d spent my life trusting that others had my best interests at heart. Being ‘managed’ was routine, to the point where I lost faith in my intuition.”

Panettiere said she could feel her heart pounding, and as she got underneath the sheets, she disassociated. 

“My body no longer felt like my own. The shock was so great it didn’t even occur to me to say no. Stella was one of my closest, most trusted friends, and this couldn’t be real. There was no way she’d ever let anything happen to me,” she continued. 

Stella allegedly then left the room, causing Panettiere’s survival instincts to kick in. She jumped out of the bed and told the man, “Look, I don’t know what she said to you, but this is not going to happen.”

She then ran to her room, booked a hotel and started packing her bags. “I needed to be with sane, normal people who didn’t care so much about fame, parties, and press and never, ever used people for their own benefit or ends,” she added. 

She alleged an Oscar-winning actor exposed himself to her

In a separate incident, Panettiere recalled being invited to a party by Stella at her apartment. 

“There were some musicians and some actors, all of whom counted themselves among the most exclusive people in Hollywood. They were also all in their forties and fifties. I was nineteen,” she wrote.

She described feeling uncomfortable, saying the party felt more like a meeting. “Stella got me a drink, then pulled me toward the men and introduced them to me one by one,” she continued. 

“I did my best to be friendly, but I was deeply uneasy. These men seemed to be a little too comfortable together, like they knew something I didn’t. As a woman in a room dominated by men, it was also hard not to feel like I was being watched. 

“The men were nice enough, asking me questions about Heroes and whether I had plans to film more movies, and I answered them politely. But I didn’t feel right, so I never let my guard down.”

Just as she was about to leave, “an Oscar-winning actor and director” approached her and said, “Well, have a good night. Just be careful when you leave because someone spit their gum out somewhere, and I got some on my pants.”

He allegedly told her to look down, only for the actress to see “his testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly.” Panettiere grabbed her coat and ran.

“Up to that moment, men in Hollywood had always been kind and respectful around me,” she wrote. 

“There may have been a peck on the lips here and an inappropriate comment there, but nothing had crossed a line. The gum on the pants, however, was a head-scratcher. 

“It hadn’t hurt me and I was sure it was a drunken joke, but I’d never seen a grown man do something like that. I was shocked.”

Panettiere reflected on how growing up in Hollywood shaped her

Looking back on her experiences in an appearance on Jay Shetty’s podcast in May, Panettiere reflected on how growing up in the entertainment industry had shaped her from an incredibly young age.

She spoke about dealing with the “massive world” of Hollywood as a child, including both rejection and a “ridiculous amount of praise” before she was old enough to properly process either.

Panettiere said her experiences taught her to change herself according to what other people wanted, explaining: “It started the habit of changing who I was to make others happy, to make them like me.”

She connected this to having “been directed all my life”, something that echoes her memoir account of becoming accustomed to being managed by other people and losing trust in her own intuition.

By 18, Panettiere was beginning to take control of her own life, including ending the professional relationship with her mother, who had managed her career since childhood.

Recalling her decision to move out and establish independence, Panettiere told Shetty: “It was survival. It was definitely survival. It was necessity. It was, ‘I need to get myself out of here.’”

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