Hayden Panettiere is opening up about a disturbing encounter from her teenage years that she describes as both “shocking” and deeply unsettling, as reported by Page Six.

The actress revealed the story while discussing her forthcoming memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” during an appearance on the “On Purpose with Jay Shetty” podcast.

Panettiere said that when she was just 18, she unexpectedly found herself in bed with an “undressed” and “very famous” man after being misled by someone she had trusted.

Hayden Panettiere was told to get in bed with a naked famous actor when she was 18 years old: "I was shocked" and "I hid wherever I could..." "Somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back… She physically put me in the bed next to this… pic.twitter.com/KJITrbjpAH

— Variety (@Variety) May 12, 2026

According to Panettiere, what began as a carefree evening on a boat with friends turned frightening when she was “taken by surprise” and realized she was “in danger.”

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She explained that she had been “led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back” into a small downstairs room on the boat.

“She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous,” Panettiere recalled, adding that the man acted “like this was just an average day for him, and this is something that happens all the time.”

Faced with fear, the “Heroes” star said she switched instantly into survival mode. “My hair stood on end, and I became ferocious,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is not happening.’”

Panettiere said that because they were “quite literally out to sea,” she had no way to leave the situation other than to escape the room and find a place to hide on the boat.

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“There was no jumping off and swimming away,” she said, explaining that she soon realized there would be “nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation,” and that everyone around her seemed to view such incidents as normal.

Reflecting on the experience now, the actress admitted that at the time she had believed she was more grown-up than she really was.

“So even though I felt like I could make healthy decisions and safe decisions, I wasn’t capable of being fully aware of what was going on around me,” she said.

Actress Hayden Panettiere opens up to Jay Shetty about a TRAUMATIC experience where an industry “friend” set her up at 18 to end up alone in bed with a NAKED “very famous” man while stuck on a boat 😳👀

"She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very… pic.twitter.com/TbIscQg653 — Killa 🌺 (@KillaKreww) May 11, 2026

Panettiere, now 36, acknowledged that the experience taught her how much she had underestimated her youth and vulnerability during that period of her life.

Her comments come ahead of the release of her memoir, in which she explores personal reckoning, resilience, and identity. Panettiere has also recently made headlines after publicly coming out as bisexual.

Discussing that decision in an interview with Us Weekly, she described the “scary” side of dating women while keeping her relationships hidden from paparazzi.

She admitted she “didn’t have the courage to throw [herself] fully emotionally into it” because she felt forced to conceal that part of herself.

While Panettiere called her announcement “better late than never,” her mother, Lesley Vogel, later told the Daily Mail that it was “interesting timing” for her daughter to share that news now.

Panettiere’s revelations have drawn attention to both her career and her personal transformation as she prepares to release “This Is Me: A Reckoning” on May 19.

Through her story, she portrays the painful complexity of navigating fame and vulnerability at a young age, and how she continues to find her voice in sharing the truth of those difficult moments.