During the two years she spent writing her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, Hayden Panettiere decided that the time had come to be completely honest about aspects of her life she had never shared publicly.
One of them was her sexuality. The 36-year-old actress confirmed that she is bisexual and that she had been attracted to women from a very young age. She also said that she had dated women, although she had never spoken publicly about it.
Why did she wait so long?
Panettiere explained that during her childhood and adolescence as a Hollywood star, she felt she had to be “perfect” and that she was not encouraged to show herself simply as she was. Later, another fear emerged: she worried that if she said she was bisexual, some people would think she was following a trend.
She also spoke about something much more concrete: the paparazzi. She said that when she dated women, photographers were waiting for her and following her constantly, so she had very little privacy. She even explained that she found it difficult to open up emotionally because she did not want to fall in love with someone and then have to hide that relationship.
That is why, when she finally decided to include this part of her story in the book, she felt she could do so without continuing to worry about what others might think.
“Yes, I am bisexual. I said it! This is the first time I can say it out loud”, she stated.
She then summed up how she felt about having waited so long:
“It is sad that I had to wait until I was 36 to share that part of myself, but better late than never, right?”
A confession that, for her, was not simply about revealing a label, but about being able to tell part of her own story for the first time without hiding it.