Actress Hayden Panettiere alleged that when she was 18-years-old, a trusted friend placed her beside a famous naked man while aboard a boat.
She reflected on the traumatic experience in her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” and recalled the alleged incident on the May 11 episode of “On Purpose with Jay Shetty.”
“You write about a moment in your career where a friend of yours takes you onto a boat,” Shetty said during the interview. “You’re led to a room which has an older man in it and then basically told to perform sexual acts.”
Panettiere described the alleged moment as being “shocking,” and she claimed it came without warning.
“There was no hints of anything like that happening,” she said. “So… it took me by surprise.”
By the time she realized the danger she was in, Panettiere said, “I was quite literally out to sea.”
The famous “Heroes” actress admitted that she thought she was mature at the time, but quickly realized her own vulnerability.
“The fact that I was 18, even though I’d lived such a huge life and I thought I was oh so mature at 18 … scientifically, your frontal lobes don’t develop until we’re what, 25, 26?” she said.
“So even though I felt like I could make healthy decisions, safe decisions, I wasn’t capable of being fully aware of what was going on around me,” she continued.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 06: Hayden Panettiere attends the Global Premiere of Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s “Scream VI” at AMC Lincoln Square on March 6, 2023 in New York, New York. (Photo by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
Part of the shock stemmed from allegedly being put in the situation with the naked man by a person she trusted.
“It was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back,” she said.
The actress said the friend took her to a “very small room” and put her body on the bed right next to the nude man.
“She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous,” Panettiere said.
She said she instinctively responded to the danger that surrounded her.
“That lion in me, that fire in me … my hair stood on end and I became ferocious,” she recalled.
“I was like, ‘This is not happening.’”
NEW YORK, NY – MAY 05: Actress Hayden Panettiere attends the “Charles James: Beyond Fashion” Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
“I bolted and I hid wherever I could think of to hide on a boat …. I realized that there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation. This was nothing new to them.”
Panettiere explained feeling trapped, noting, “there was no jumping off and swimming away.”
“When you really find somebody that you trust, you hold on to them for dear life, and you feel so lucky,” she said.
“So to be betrayed like that is just an awful feeling.” (RELATED: Troubled Child Star Hayden Panettiere Comes Out As Bisexual)
The actress didn’t identify the friend she had trusted or the naked male. She did not indicate how she eventually made it off the boat to safety.
“This is Me: A Reckoning” is slated for release May 19.