Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Hayden Panettiere came out as bisexual in an Us Weekly interview on Wednesday. “I’m comfortable to confidently say that, yes, I am bisexual,” Panettiere, who writes about her sexuality in her upcoming memoir, told the magazine. “I said it!” She added that writing the book, which also covers her experiences with addiction, domestic abuse, and loss, motivated her to come out.
Panettiere told the magazine that she’s chosen to be “completely brutally honest” about her sexuality now, because it never felt like the right time before, and she’d never been encouraged to “be myself.” She didn’t want her coming out to be seen as part of a fad or “jumping on the bandwagon,” she said. “It was always the fear of not being perfect, and what my team was going to think about it, what the public’s opinion was going to be about it.” While Panettiere said she has had relationships with women, she never let herself become fully emotionally invested. “Because then if I did fall in love, that wasn’t something that I wanted to ever have to hide,” she explained.
The actor wanted to make sure that, whenever she did come out, she was able to tell her story in a way that people understood. “On one hand, it’s sad that I had to wait till I was 36 years old to share that part of me,” she said. “But better late than never, right?”
Stay in touch.
The latest in style, self, culture, and power in your inbox.
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice
Related