Hayden Panettiere has publicly come out as bisexual at 36, revealing the personal truth in her forthcoming memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, which will be released on May 19. In a new interview with Us Weekly published May 6, the Nashville alum said she had long kept that part of her life private and explained why now felt like the right time to speak openly.
“It’s sad I had to wait until I was 36 years old to share that part of me, but better late than never, right?” Panettiere told the publication. She said earlier stages of her life — when she felt pressured to be “perfect” and under intense public scrutiny as a young actor — left her without the space to be honest. Later, she feared that publicly acknowledging attraction to women might be dismissed as a trend. “I was afraid that if I was honest it was going to be like me jumping on the bandwagon,” she said.
Panettiere also confirmed in the interview that she has dated women in the past but, because she had not previously shared that side of herself, she lacked the courage to fully pursue those relationships. “I have explored it, but because I hadn’t shared this with anybody, I didn’t really have the courage to throw myself fully emotionally into it. Because then if I did fall in love that wasn’t something that I wanted to ever have to hide,” she said. “Now that I know that this book is coming out, and that I’ve chosen to share it with the world, I’m comfortable to confidently say that yes, I am bisexual. I said it! This is the first time I got to say it out loud.”
The revelation comes as Panettiere prepares to publish a book she first teased in 2024. When speaking to People at the time, she framed the memoir as a candid look at the lessons she’s learned and the woman she has become, saying readers might “laugh a little, cry a little, but most importantly… finish it feeling inspired.” This Is Me: A Reckoning will be available in stores and online on May 19.
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Panettiere’s personal life has been a long-running element of public interest. She shares 11-year-old daughter Kaya with former fiancé and heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko; the pair had an on-again, off-again relationship that lasted nearly a decade from 2009 to 2018. Other publicly known relationships include former NFL player Scotty McKnight, her Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia, and Stephen Colletti; after her split from Klitschko she was linked to Brian Hickerson.
Her decision to use a memoir as the forum to come out follows a broader pattern of public figures turning to long-form personal narratives to reveal previously private aspects of their lives. Recent examples in the cultural landscape include reality star discussions of sexual fluidity and other actors publishing candid accounts of reinvention and recovery. For Panettiere, the memoir appears intended as both confession and closure — a chance to control the narrative around her identity on her own terms.
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By coming out in print and speaking about it in interviews ahead of the book’s release, Panettiere has moved the conversation about her private life from rumor and speculation into a direct statement. The memoir’s publication will likely offer more context around her experiences and the choices that led her to share this aspect of herself publicly at this point in her life.
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