Hayden Panettiere appeared in commercials before she turned one. By age 4, she was already starring in a soap opera. She never had anyone’s ordinary childhood: she had shooting schedules, scripts, and a mother who, as the Hollywood Reporter article itself described, acted like an overly anxious “stage mom”.
In an interview given shortly before the release of her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning”, the actress from “Heroes” and “Nashville” was direct: she felt “groomed”, shaped to fulfill a role she never chose. “I was like a little soldier”, she said. “It was never an option.”
That childhood with no room to say no, she said, ended up leaving its marks: harmful habits and a relationship with substances that she carried for years. She also used the book to speak, for the first time, about her bisexuality. 🎬💔
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