Hayden Panettiere recalls being forced into bed with 'undressed' famous man at 18

American actor-singer Hayden Panettiere has spoken about a traumatic experience from her early years in Hollywood. On a podcast, she recalled the harrowing chapter that she has also mentioned in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning. According to Panettiere, a woman she trusted as a friend led her to a room on a boat and then forced her, only 18 at the time, into bed next to an undressed, "very famous" older man.

Panettiere was speaking on the podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, when she discussed the sordid experience that also features in her memoir, published on May 12, 2026.

"You write about a moment in your career where a friend of yours takes you onto a boat. You’re led to a room which has an older man in it and then basically told to perform sexual acts," podcast host Jay Shetty pointed out about the chapter in her book.

To this, Panettiere, 36, replied that although she thought she was mature at the time, she now recognised how vulnerable she was given the situation.

“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," she said. "Scientifically, your frontal lobes don’t develop until we’re – what – 25, 26? 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,” she added.

Panettiere said her "perspective completely shifted" once she realised she was "in danger". According to Panettiere, "it was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back".

Recalling the alleged incident on the boat, she recalled being taken downstairs into a "very small room", where, she said, the woman "physically put me in bed next to this undressed man who was very famous." Without naming the man, Panettiere said he appeared to behave "like this was just an average day for him."

"I became ferocious," she recalled. "I was like, 'This is not happening'." She said that while "there was no jumping off and swimming away," she fled the room and tried to hide elsewhere on the boat. She added, "There was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation. I realised that this was nothing new to them."

Panettiere also spoke about the emotional impact of being betrayed by someone she trusted. "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."

Since 2017, the discourse on women's safety in the entertainment industry has become a serious conversation. The #MeToo movement, fuelled by the conviction of former American producer Harvey Weinstein for sexual misconduct, has brought these critical issues to the forefront.