Hayden Panettiere said she was \u201cquite literally out to sea\u201d when she realized she was \u201cin danger\u201d during the encounter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
The actress recalled being led into a small room and placed in a bed next to an \u201cundressed\u201d and \u201cvery famous\u201d man<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Panettiere said the experience felt especially painful because it involved someone she had \u201cgrown to trust\u201d and viewed as a \u201cprotector\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Hayden Panettiere<\/a> is reflecting on a traumatic experience<\/a> from her late teens.<\/p>\n During the Monday, May 11 episode of Jay Shetty\u2019s podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty<\/a>, the actress, 36, discussed a chapter from her upcoming memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she recounts being placed in an uncomfortable and frightening situation aboard a boat when she was 18.<\/p>\n \u201cYou write about a moment in your career where a friend of yours takes you onto a boat,\u201d Shetty, 38, said during the interview. \u201cYou\u2019re led to a room which has an older man in it and then basically told to perform sexual acts.\u201d<\/p>\n Panettiere said though she believed she was mature at the time, she now recognizes how vulnerable she was.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that I was 18, even though I\u2019d lived such a huge life and I thought I was oh so mature at 18 \u2026 scientifically, your frontal lobes don\u2019t develop until we\u2019re what, 25, 26?\u201d she said. \u201cSo even though I felt like I could make healthy decisions, safe decisions, I wasn\u2019t capable of being fully aware of what was going on around me.\u201d<\/p>\n The actress said her \u201cperspective completely shifted\u201d once she realized she was \u201cin danger,\u201d but by then, she said, \u201cI was quite literally out to sea.\u201d<\/p>\n Panettiere described the incident as both \u201cshocking\u201d and deeply unsettling, recalling how she had initially believed she was simply having a fun night out. \u201cThere was no hints of anything like that happening,\u201d she recalled. \u201cSo it took me by surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Panettiere, the person who brought her into the situation was someone she had trusted deeply. \u201cIt was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n The actress said she was escorted downstairs into a \u201cvery small room,\u201d where she says she was placed into bed next to an \u201cundressed\u201d man.<\/p>\n \u201cShe physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous,\u201d Panettiere said, adding that he appeared to behave \u201clike this was just an average day for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Panettiere’s cover for ‘This Is Me A Reckoning’ Panettiere said she immediately went into survival mode. \u201cThat lion in me, that fire in me \u2026 my hair stood on end and I became ferocious,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI was like, \u2018This is not happening.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n She said she fled the room and attempted to hide elsewhere on the boat. \u201cThere was no jumping off and swimming away,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation. I realized that this was nothing new to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the conversation, Panettiere reflected on the emotional impact of feeling betrayed by someone she trusted.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you really find somebody that you trust, you hold on to them for dear life and you feel so lucky,\u201d she said. \u201cSo to be betrayed like that is just an awful feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n This is Me: A Reckoning<\/a> by Panettiere is out May 19, wherever books are sold.<\/p>\n![\"Panettiere's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/679b91f5b331cffc2b4b52bb2bde1fd5.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Grand Central Publishing<\/p>\n