Hayden Panettiere pulled back the curtain on a painful chapter of her past, detailing an unsettling incident with a “famous thirtysomething 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 shared that there the musician was lying shirtless in bed.
Panettiere recalled Stella urging her to get under the sheets, leaving her shocked and disoriented.
“My body no longer felt like my own. The shock was so great 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.
Reflecting on Stella’s actions, she admitted to feeling betrayed, “She’d confided in me, pampered me, and treated me like her best friend — then turned around and treated me like a call girl. I deserved better than that, by a lot.”
The actress explained that she chose not to name the musician, citing concerns about legal repercussions 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 pissed‑off famous people,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
Panettiere said the incident pushed her to seek relationships with people less focused on fame and more grounded in respect.
At the time, she longed to return home to former fiancé Wladimir Klitschko.
