Hayden Panettiere said she is bisexual, saying the disclosure is the first time she has ever said it out loud and that the subject will appear in her memoir due out May 12. The actress said she felt comfortable making it public now that the book is set for release.
“Now that I know that this book is coming out, and that I’ve chosen to share it with the world, I’m comfortable to confidently say that yes, I am bisexual,” Panettiere said in an interview published May 6. “I said it! This is the first time I got to say it out loud.”
She said she had kept that part of herself private because it never felt like the right time. Panettiere said she was young and being pushed to be perfect, and later worried that speaking openly about attraction to women would look like she was “jumping on the bandwagon” at a moment when she believed bisexuality, especially among women, was being treated as a fad.
Panettiere said the delay was especially hard because she had already explored relationships with women. She said she was “much more into women even as a child than I was men,” but did not feel able to throw herself fully into those relationships because she had not shared that truth with anyone.
“It was scary,” she said, pointing to the scrutiny that followed her everywhere. “There were paparazzi always waiting for me outside, to follow me everywhere. I had very little privacy.”
The disclosure adds a new layer to a memoir that Panettiere has said is meant to be candid about her life and hard-earned recovery. The Heroes alum and Nashville star is also the mother of Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, 11, with ex Wladimir Klitschko, and has previously spoken publicly about addiction and sobriety.
There is a tension in Panettiere’s account that goes beyond celebrity confession: she says she had the words years ago, but not the safety or confidence to use them. By releasing the memoir and speaking now, she is closing a gap that has shadowed her public life since at least 2016, when she was asked about how she identified. In her view, the answer is simple now. She says she is bisexual, and she says waiting until 36 was sad — but better late than never.