Hayden Panettiere said this week that she is bisexual, telling Us Weekly she had never felt the timing was right to share that part of herself publicly. The 36-year-old actor also said she has dated a woman, and that her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, will explore how she understood her sexuality over the years.
Panettiere said it was sad she had waited until she was 36 to speak openly about it. She said she was drawn more to women than men as a child, but never felt ready to fully act on that feeling. "I have explored it, but because I hadn’t shared this with anybody, I didn’t really have the courage to throw myself fully emotionally into it," she said. "Because then if I did fall in love, that wasn’t something that I wanted to ever have to hide."
The memoir is scheduled to be released May 19, and Panettiere’s comments are landing as she promotes a book that also addresses her strained relationship with her mother, Lesley Vogel. Panettiere said, "Unfortunately, we don’t have a relationship right now. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t leave the door open for the opportunity to present itself one day. It’s hard for me to say, but I’ve chosen to be brutally honest."
Vogel then questioned the timing of the disclosure in a Friday interview, saying, "I do not believe it was being hidden, but there is no historic proof that this is the case" and, "I do think the timing of this coming out is very interesting." Panettiere had already described why she held back, saying she was "too young" at times and later worried that women coming out as bisexual was being treated like a fad. She added that paparazzi were constantly outside and that it was "scary" to be so visible while trying to sort out something so personal.
The exchange puts the book launch at the center of a family dispute as well as a personal one. Panettiere has chosen to frame her disclosure as part of a fuller reckoning with her life, but Vogel’s comments suggest the questions around timing may follow her well beyond publication day.
