Hayden Panettiere is publicly revealing for the first time that she identifies as bisexual.
“The first time it even crossed my mind to touch on this subject was while I was in the process of writing this book,” Panettiere, 36, exclusively tells Us Weekly in this week’s cover story while discussing her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, out May 19. In the book, Panettiere discusses her attraction to women and the moment she finally felt comfortable enough to share that aspect of her identity with the world.
“It took two years to write this book, and I did not know what I was going to feel comfortable touching on … and what stories were naturally going to come up, and the fact that that did come up, I was like, ‘Why not?’” the Nashville alum continues. “I’ve chosen to be completely brutally honest about this, and that’s something about me that I was never able to share with the world, because it was just never the right time.”
Panettiere admits that she avoided revealing her attraction to women in the past because she felt like she was “forced to be perfect at all times” when she was younger.
“I was not encouraged to just be myself,” she tells Us. “No one ever encouraged me to just be myself, and then it came, the period of time, where it felt like people coming out, especially women coming out, and saying that they were bisexual, or liked girls, was a fad.”
Panettere says she felt “afraid” that if she came out sooner, people would see it as “jumping on the bandwagon.”
“And once again, it was always the fear of not being perfect, and what my team was going to think about it, what the public’s opinion was going to be about it,” she continues. “It was just never the right time, and it was a very difficult topic to articulate properly. I wanted to make sure that I really sat down and chose my words carefully and was able to tell my story in an honest way, that people understood. On one hand, it’s sad that I had to wait till I was 36 years old to share that part of me, but better late than never, right?”
Panettiere adds, “Now that I know that this book is coming out, and that I’ve chosen to share it with the world, I’m comfortable saying I’m bisexual. I’m comfortable to confidently say that, yes, I am bisexual. I said it!”
The Ice Princess star also opens up about her past experience dating women.
“It was always scary, because my life, I mean, there were paparazzi always outside, waiting for me outside, to follow me everywhere,” she recalls. “I had very little privacy, and I mean, I have dated women. It started at a very, very young age.”
Panettiere says she was “much more into women” than men when growing up.
“But, yeah, I have explored it, but I don’t think I ever had the courage, because I hadn’t shared this with anybody,” she notes. “I didn’t really have the courage to throw myself fully, emotionally into it, because then if I did fall in love, that wasn’t something that I wanted to ever have to hide. I didn’t feel confident enough, and I was too afraid to really let that part of me explore that part of me.”
Panettiere’s most recent public romance was with ex Brian Hickerson from 2018 to 2020. She was also previously engaged to Wladimir Klitschko, with whom she shares 11-year-old daughter Kaya, from 2013 to 2018.
This Is Me: A Reckoning hits shelves on Tuesday, May 19.
