NEWSHayden Panettiere Defends Not Name-Dropping Celebrities in Memoir Bombshells: 'People Are Not Readily Willing to Admit What They Did'
Hayden Panettiere 'wanted to call people out,' but didn't in her memoir, 'This is Me: A Reckoning.'
May 22 2026, Published 6:02 a.m. ET
Hayden Panettiere insisted she isn't lying about the sordid experiences she had in showbiz because she declined to name names in her memoir, This is Me: A Reckoning, which was released May 12.
"I wanted to tell my stories without dragging anyone else through the mud," the actress, 36, said on The Tamron Hall Show on Wednesday, May 20. "As much as I wanted to call people out, this is still an industry that I have to exist in, and people are not readily willing to admit to what they did."
She insisted that has "nothing to do" with trying to sell her book.
"You don't make a story like that up to sell a book," the Nashville star said. "Sorry, I've been doing this too long."
What Stories Are in Question?
Hayden Panettiere appeared on 'The Tamron Hall Show' to talk about her book.
Hall suggested she has set off a "whodunit" as readers guess the identities of the stars in question based on their descriptions and the description of the events that occurred.
Panettiere mentioned that someone she “had grown to trust and see as a protector” put her in bed with a “very famous” and “undressed” man when she was 18.
Hayden Panettiere 'Recoiled' When Flashed by an Oscar Winner
Hayden Panettiere dropped more hints about the identities of the guilty parties while promoting the book.
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She told Jay Shetty's "On Purpose" podcast on Monday, May 11, that the man in question was a “famous thirty-something British singer-songwriter.”
The woman in question has been rumored to be Diana Jenkins of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, who has denied it.
Panettiere also mentioned that she was sexually harassed by an Oscar winner, who told her that he had gum on his pants.
"I looked down and recoiled," she wrote. "This well-respected, award-winning actor’s testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly.”
Hayden Panettiere's Mother Refuted Her Bisexuality Claim in 'This Is Me'
'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star Diana Jenkins denied allegations that she put Panettiere in the bad situation described in the tome.
Others are unhappy that the Heroes star included them in her truth, such as ex Brian Hickerson, whom she accused of abuse.
Panettiere's estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, was upset her daughter came out as bisexual in her tome.
“I do not believe it was being hidden, but there is no historic proof that this is the case,” she told Daily Mail in an interview published May 8. “I do think the timing of this coming out is very interesting.”
Hayden Panettiere also wrote about ex-fiance Wladimir Klitschko and the loss of her brother Jansen Panettiere.
In the book, Panettiere also details her struggles with postpartum depression, addiction, daughter Kaya, 11, living with ex-fiance Wladimir Klitschko and the loss of her brother Jansen Panettiere, who died in 2023 at age 28 from heart issues.
She also addresses her 2006-2008 relationship with Milo Ventimiglia, whom she started dating when he was 30 and she was 18.
