Hayden Panettiere reveals being lured into bed with naked famous actor at 18: ‘I hid wherever I could’
Scream star Hayden Panettiere recalled her harrowing experience being lured to get into bed with a naked famous actor when she was 18.
In her interview on Jay Shetty's podcast, drawing from her memoir, This is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere revealed the incident took place on a boat after she was misled by someone she considered a friend.
"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.”
Panettiere reflected on how her sense of awareness became distorted, only realizing the danger she was in when it had already escalated beyond her control.
“It wasn’t until I found myself in predicaments that I realized my perspective completely shifted and I realized I was in danger. By the time I realized I was in danger, I was quite literally out to sea," she added.
“I had been having a great time. There was no hints of anything like that happening, so I was shocked. It took me by surprise. I was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back," she lamented.
"We walked down the stairs. It was a small room. She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous, and this was just an average day for him and this is something that happens all the time," she claimed.
The actress recalled how she quickly shifted into a survival mode and was desperately searching for a place to hide.
“I waited for her to leave, and that lion in me, that fire in me. My hair stood on end, and I became ferocious. I was like, ‘This is not happening,’” she continued. “But I had nowhere to hide. I bolted. I hid wherever I could think to hide on a boat. There was no jumping off and swimming away. and I realized that there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation, that this was nothing new to them.”
“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.”
While she's grateful she now has her support system, Panettiere reflected on the pain of betrayal, sharing how deeply she valued trust in relationships.
“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 starred in TV series and films, including Nashville, Heroes, I Love You, Beth Cooper, Scream VI and IV, and Disney films A Bug's Life, Remember the Titans, and Tiger Cruise.
