Hayden Panettiere Recalls Disturbing Moment She Was Put in Bed with ‘Undressed’ Man at 18

“Heroes” star Hayden Panettiere is opening up about a terrifying moment on a boat during an appearance on the “On Purpose with Jay Shetty” podcast.

Panettiere discussed the situation in her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” saying she was brought onto a boat by a female friend. 

She said, "I was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back.”

She was eventually led to a “very small room" with an unidentified famous man, who was “undressed."

Panettiere said, "She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous… This was just an average day for him.”

"I was quite literally out to sea,” Hayden emphasized. "There was no hints of anything like that happening. So, it took me by surprise.”

Hayden then went into fight or flight mode, saying, "That lion in me, that fire in me … My hair stood on end and I became ferocious. I was like, ‘This is not happening.’”

Panettiere said she ran out of the room, but noted, "There was no jumping off and swimming away,. And there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation."

Reflecting on the context, she said, "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? 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.”

Months ago, "Extra's" Mona Kosar Abdi spoke with Hayden, who called the memoir "a very therapeutic experience.”

Hayden spent two years writing the memoir. She admitted it was "terrifying" to "put it all out there." She added, "I was like, ‘If I'm going to do this, I'm gonna go for it. I'm not going to hold back. I'm going to tell my entire life from story from beginning to where I am now and everything.'"