Hayden Panettiere Reveals When She Started Dating Women After Confirming Bisexuality
What To Know
- Hayden Panettiere has publicly come out as bisexual for the first time while promoting her memoir.
- Her book, This Is Me: A Reckoning, comes out on May 19.
- Panettiere explained why she didn’t disclose her sexuality until now.
Hayden Panettiere is ready to open up about her personal life like never before. The Nashville alum has revealed that she’s bisexual.
In a new interview to promote her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere told Us Weekly that she’s never disclosed her bisexuality before now because “it was just never the right time.” She’s also felt “forced to be perfect at all times” when she was younger, which is why she didn’t talk about having dated women in the past until now.
“It was always scary, because my life, I mean, there were paparazzi always outside, waiting for me outside, to follow me everywhere,” she said. “I had very little privacy, and I mean, I have dated women. It started at a very, very young age.”
She admitted that she was “much more into women” than men when she was growing up. “I have explored it, but I don’t think I ever had the courage, because I hadn’t shared this with anybody,” Panettiere added, “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. I didn’t feel confident enough, and I was too afraid to really let that part of me explore that part of me.”
As one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars, Panettiere didn’t feel like she could ever be her true self. “No one ever encouraged me to just be myself, and then it came, the period of time, where it felt like people coming out, especially women coming out, and saying that they were bisexual, or liked girls, was a fad,” she said.
Now, at 36, Panettiere feels like she can tell her story on her terms. “I’m comfortable saying I’m bisexual,” she told the outlet. “I’m comfortable to confidently say that, yes, I am bisexual. I said it!”
Panettiere didn’t reveal whether or not she is actively dating at the moment, but she’s had a number of high-profile romances in the past. She dated her Heroes costar Milo Ventimiglia from 2007 to 2009. She met heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko soon after the breakup, and they were engaged from 2013 to 2018. They have a daughter, Kaya, who was born in 2014. She started dating Brian Hickerson in 2018, and their relationship ended in 2020 after he was arrested on a domestic violence charge.
