Hayden Panettiere pulled back the curtain on a painful chapter of her past, detailing a disturbing incident with a “famous thirty-something British singer-songwriter” in her new memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning.
The Heroes and Nashville actress described being led by her friend Stella into a cabin aboard a luxury yacht.
She said that the musician was lying shirtless in bed.
Panettiere recalled Stella urging her to get under the sheets, which left her shocked and disoriented.
“My body no longer felt like my own. The shock was so great that it didn’t even occur to me to say no,” she writes.
Panettiere said she quickly stopped the situation from escalating by telling the musician, “This is not going to happen.”
She flew to her cabin and arranged to leave the yacht.
After reflecting on Stella’s actions, she admitted she felt betrayed: “She had confided in me, pampered me and treated me like her best friend – then she turned around and treated me like a call girl. I deserved much better than that.”
The actress explained that she chose not to name the musician, citing concerns about legal ramifications and protecting herself from industry fallout.
“Things happened a long time ago, but it was to protect me and my company from being sued by some very angry famous people,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
Panettiere said the incident pushed her to seek relationships with people who were less focused on fame and more based on respect.
At the time, she longed to return home to former fiance Wladimir Klitschko.
