Hayden Panettiere placed in bed beside a ‘very famous,’ ‘undressed’ man at 18, opens up about traumatic incident in new memoir

As she prepares to release her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, Hayden Panettiere is speaking publicly about a traumatic experience from her late teens that, she says, reshaped how she understands trust and personal safety.

In a recent appearance on On Purpose with Jay Shetty, hosted by Jay Shetty, Panettiere reflected on an incident that occurred when she was 18 during what she believed would be a routine social outing on a boat.

Her recollection centers on the moment she says her instincts shifted from ease to alarm. “My perspective completely shifted” when she realized she was “in danger,” Panettiere said, adding that by then, “I was quite literally out to sea,” reported People.


According to Panettiere, the situation unfolded without warning. “There was no hints of anything like that happening,” she said. “So it took me by surprise.” She described being led into a very small room below the deck by someone she trusted deeply.

“It was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back,” she explained.


Inside the room, Panettiere said she was “physically put… in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous.” She added that the man appeared to act “like this was just an average day for him.”

The actor emphasized how her understanding of the event has changed with time. At 18, she said, she believed she was capable of navigating adult environments confidently.

“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,” as quoted by People.

Panettiere described an immediate, instinctive reaction once she grasped the seriousness of the situation. “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.’ ”

She said she left the room and attempted to hide elsewhere on the boat. “There was no jumping off and swimming away,” Panettiere recalled. “And there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation. I realized that this was nothing new to them.”

Beyond the fear of the moment, Panettiere said the emotional impact was compounded by betrayal. “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, out May 19, explores personal chapters from her life and career, including moments she says forced her to reassess how she viewed herself and the people around her.