Actress Hayden Panettiere has set Hollywood ablaze over the last few weeks after teasing parts of her explosive memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning.” According to previous reports from The Blast, the mother of one wrote about painful moments she encountered during her career, including one where a very famous Oscar-winning actor and director exposed himself to her. In another part of the book, the “Bring It On” performer recalled being placed in bed next to a naked, famous singer. Panettiere kept the men’s names out of her book, prompting social media users to speculate about whom she might be referring to. Despite that, Panettiere explained in a recent interview that the book had nothing to do with airing people’s dirty laundry.
Speaking with Tamron Hall on her daytime talk show, Panettiere answered the former “Today Show” host’s questions about whether she left names out of the book for legal reasons.
“I wanted to tell my stories without dragging anyone else in the mud, through the mud,” she said, adding that she was cognizant about what could have happened had she used real names. “As much as I want to call people out, this is still an industry that I have to exist in.”
According to Panettiere, writing about her experiences was more for her than anybody else. “People are not readily willing to admit to what they did,” she said before addressing the claims that she may have written about the aforementioned stories for attention and book sales.
“You don’t make a story like that up just to sell a book. Sorry, been doing this too long,” she said. “This has nothing to do with that.”
Hayden Panettiere Admits That She Didn’t Want To Be Sued By ‘Very P-ssed-Off Famous People’
Panettiere shared more about her decision to omit the names of the famous men she alleged had wronged her in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Panettiere said mentioning the men directly “was a bad look for them” before echoing her earlier sentiments. “They’re people I could run into again. I didn’t want to put myself in that position,” she said.
Adding to it, the “Nashville” actress acknowledged that while these experiences “happened a long time ago,” naming them could cause issues for her down the line.
“… it was to protect me and my company from being sued by some very p-ssed-off famous people,” she said.
Hayden Panettiere Said An Award-Winning Actor Exposed His Private Area To Her
In her memoir, Panettiere wrote about a troubling experience she had as a young woman surrounded by powerful Hollywood men.
According to The Blast, Panettiere was interacting with the men, who she described as in their 40s and 50s, and said she felt them eyeing her.
As she left the event, that’s when a well-respected Oscar winner grabbed her and told her he had a “big wad of gum on his pants.”
When Panettiere looked down, she noticed that the gentleman’s testicles were hanging out of his pants.
Panettiere Recalls Being Placed In Bed With A Naked, Famous Man
In another section of her book, Panettiere reflected on being placed in bed with a naked, famous man when she was 18 by someone she trusted.
“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. “I wasn’t capable of being fully aware of what was going on around me.”
Panettiere called the moment “shocking,” adding that she eventually escaped the room and hid for the rest of the night.
“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.’”
Panettiere Wrote About Being Fired For Speaking About Postpartum Depression
Elsewhere in her book, Panettiere revealed that she was fired from Neutrogena, the popular skincare brand, after speaking publicly about her postpartum depression.
According to Panettiere, the company decided to part ways with her, citing a violation of its morality clause.
Panettiere went on to say that she was confused by the company’s decision to fire her, saying, “… all the things that people representing your company have done, the thing that you’re going to say is not allowed, and that breaks the morality clause, is speaking about my postpartum depression?”
The actress said that speaking about her postpartum had nothing to do with whether she was misrepresenting the brand.
“That’s not a moral thing, that’s just a scientific thing. That’s not even legal. You cannot legally fire somebody for having postpartum depression. It’s not a choice I made. It wasn’t my fault. So that one blew my mind,” she said.