Scream star Hayden Panettiere revealed in her new book that an Oscar–winning actor flashed her when she was 19. The Heroes star details the alleged incident as part of a broader reflection on navigating Hollywood as a young woman.
Hayden Panettiere shares that a renowned Oscar winner exposed himself to her
In her new memoir, actress Hayden Panettiere recounts that an Academy Award-winning actor exposed himself to her at a party when she was 19.
Recounting the incident in her tell-all, This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere said she walked out of a private apartment gathering with a group of men after becoming uncomfortable.
The Nashville star wrote that as she was putting on her coat to leave, an unnamed man approached her and drew attention to his pants, claiming he had gum stuck to them. “I looked down and recoiled,” Panettiere wrote, according to People. “This well-respected, award-winning actor’s testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly,” she added.
“It hadn’t hurt me, and I was sure it was a drunken joke, but I’d never seen a grown man do something like that. I was shocked,” the actress continued. Panettiere, who went to the party with a friend, chose not to mention the incident afterward. She felt “the moment had passed” and attributed it to “some older men had just grown up with no manners.”
In another part of the book, Panettiere recounted meeting a “famous thirtysomething British singer-songwriter” on a yacht in France. The unnamed artist was “lying in bed,” and Panettiere’s friend urged her to join him, making a crude sexual remark. She left immediately after her friend exited.
Hayden Panettiere also addressed her bisexuality in the memoir. “I’ve been attracted to women just as long as I’ve been attracted to men,” she wrote.
The memoir further examines personal hardships, from her parents’ 2008 abuse case to her abusive relationship with ex Brian Hickerson. It also covers postpartum depression, alcoholism, losing custody of her daughter, and her brother Jansen’s 2023 death. Panettiere dedicates the book to him.
