Who Has Hayden Panettiere Dated? A Look at the Actress' Relationship History After Coming Out as Bisexual

Hayden Panettiere's dating history spans several famous names.

The Heroes alum, who came out as bisexual in a recent interview, had a short-lived romance with Stephen Colletti in the early 2000s. Per reports, they were together from 2006 until they split by the end of 2007.

Looking back, Panettiere said the Laguna Beach star was "very protective" at the height of their fame.

"I'm so grateful that he was part of my life, especially when he was," she told Us Weekly. "Because when I was with him was when I started having to deal with paparazzi and tabloids and being the focal point of them."

She added, "He never appeared to be [or] came off as a bad guy. So I knew that there was a way to protect yourself and put up boundaries without being offensive or rude."

Panettiere and Colletti have remained on good terms following a "peaceful and kind" breakup.

Panettiere moved on with Milo Ventimiglia and went public with their relationship in 2007. After two years of dating, they called it quits due to "lifestyle conflict" that reportedly left them "in very different places."

"It was so out of left field, nothing that big or explosive had happened," she told Us Weekly. "Nothing had really gone wrong. Nobody cheated. I remember the look on his face being pure shock at how visceral and massive my negative reaction was, and he immediately took it back. One hundred percent it was only because I was over the toilet, hysterically crying. It was like my world had crumbled."

Despite their 12-year age gap, the Nashville alum admitted to seeing a future with Ventimiglia.

"Every relationship I've ever been in, I invested my whole self in," she shared. "I saw him as my partner and that it was going to hopefully keep going and evolving and lead to marriage."

However, things did not go as she had hoped.

"It was a point of contention that I was unable to put the 'I' in front of 'love you' and at the time, I didn't realize or understand why it made me feel so uncomfortable," Panettiere confessed. "I could only say 'love you' in a casual way. Being older, he was much more aware of what that meant. And that said a lot."

In 2009, Panettiere met Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko through mutual friends. They began dating but parted ways in May 2011 due to the challenges of maintaining a long-distance relationship.

​​"Even though we've decided splitting up is best for both of us, we have an amazing amount of love and respect for each other and remain very close friends," Panettiere said at the time.

Meanwhile, Klitschko addressed the split in a separate statement, which read, "We had a great time together, but it's not that easy to manage a relationship between two continents. I have a lot of respect for Hayden as a person and as a friend, and I believe we'll keep our friendship even after the separation."

In February 2013, the twosome sparked reconciliation rumors after they were spotted having lunch in Hollywood, Fla. They got engaged in October 2013 before welcoming their first child in December 2014.

Panettiere and Klitschko's on-again, off-again relationship continued until they split for good in 2018.

During her brief split from Klitschko, the Raising Helen star began dating Scotty McKnight after the two were introduced through mutual friends. They stayed together for nearly a year before amicably breaking up in 2012.

Panettiere was entangled in a romance with Brian Hickerson in 2018. Their relationship quickly drew widespread media attention when the real estate agent was arrested following an alleged domestic violence incident involving the Grammy-nominated singer.

Hickerson was later charged with felony domestic violence and ordered to stay away from Panettiere. Although the charges were dropped, he was cuffed again in 2020 in connection with another alleged incident.

They broke up for good after Hickerson's second arrest.

"That whole experience, I kept as much of it to myself as possible because I didn't want to drag anybody that I loved emotionally into such an upsetting situation," she told Us Weekly. "I knew that they would want to protect me and would do anything to make sure that I was safe, and I wanted to keep them safe, and … emotionally safe… It was humiliating. It was embarrassing, so I didn't want anyone to know. I wanted people to know as little as possible."

She continued, "I'm a pack animal. I need to be surrounded by people. If I don't have a good community around me, if I don't have good people around me and good supportive friends, I feel lost. I don't feel like I can be myself. I don't feel like I can function properly [and] the depression gets the best of me."

Panettiere compared escaping a toxic relationship to "trying to rip a weed out that is so entangled into your life."

"Every time you pull it out, another weed pops back up and you're like, 'I thought I killed this.' They always manage to find a way to slither back into your life, even if you're an incredibly strong-willed person," she explained, adding it took her a long time to fully move on from the relationship.

She also wrote about the past abuse in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, calling it "brutal," "traumatic" and "emotional."