“It was to protect me,” the actress said.

Hayden Panettiere defends decision to keep ‘very famous’ man’s identity from boat story secret in memoir

"It was to protect me," the actress said.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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May 14, 2026 1:45 p.m. ET

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Hayden Panettiere. Credit:

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

- Hayden Panettiere explains why she didn't name the 'very famous man' from her harrowing boat story.

- The *Heroes* star recently recounted being led at the age of 18 to a small room, where she was placed in bed beside the 'undressed' man.

- While she does not identify the man in her memoir, *This Is Me: A Reckoning, *she does name-drop such stars as Steven Colletti and Milo Ventimiglia.

Hayden Panettiere gets extremely candid about the horrors of Hollywood in her new memoir — but that doesn't always mean naming names.

Among the traumas Panettiere addresses in *This Is Me: A Reckoning *is the time a friend betrayed her by laying her in bed beside an "undressed man who was very famous." The bombshell set the internet ablaze as social media sleuths worked to puzzle out the identity of the man in question. Meanwhile, Panettiere stands by her decision to keep the name to herself.

In a recent sit-down with *The Hollywood Reporter*, Panettiere confirmed that plenty of thought went into which names she shared and which she held back.

"It was a bad look for them and [the people I didn’t name] were generally people within my industry," she told the outlet. "They’re people I could run into again. I didn’t want to put myself in that position."

Panettiere as Clair Bennet in 'Heroes'.

Dean Hendler/NBC

The *Heroes* star added, "Things happened a long time ago, but it was to protect me and my company from being sued by some very pissed-off famous people."

The harrowing encounter, which took place on a boat, is detailed in Panettiere's memoir. She also recounted the incident during a Monday visit to *On Purpose With Jay Shetty*.

"By the time I'd realized I was in danger, I was quite literally out to sea," she recalled. "I had been having a great time. There was no hints of anything like that happening. So I was shocked."

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She then described being led by somebody that she "had grown to trust and see as a protector," who brought her to a "very small room" and "physically put [her] in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous."

It was after Panettiere's so-called friend left that survival mode kicked in. “That lion in me, that fire in me… my hair stood on end and I became ferocious,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘This is not happening.’"

Panettiere in 2022.

Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

She continued, "I had nowhere to hide. I bolted and I hid wherever I could think of to hide on a boat. There was no jumping off and swimming away... and I realized that there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation — that this was nothing new to them."

She said it was ultimately a "disappointing" experience, getting betrayed by someone she has trusted so much.

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Elsewhere in her memoir, Panettiere does name names, opening up about surviving a "brutal" abusive relationship with ex Brian Hickerson, in addition to breakups with actors Steven Colletti and Milo Ventimiglia.

The former child star was just 8 months old when she was first signed to a modeling agency. She was later thrust into Hollywood, getting her start at the age of 5 with a three-year arc on the soap opera* One Life to Live*. The memoir sees Panettiere describe working tirelessly since childhood, under the eye of her mom and former manager, Lesley Vogel.

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