Hayden Panettiere Comes Out as Bisexual at 36 After Fearing ‘Public Opinion’ and ‘What My Team Was Going to Think’

May 6, 2026 12:05pm PT Hayden Panettiere Comes Out as Bisexual at 36 After Fearing ‘Public Opinion’ and ‘What My Team Was Going to Think’

By Zack Sharf

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Zack Sharf

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Hayden Panettiere came out publicly as bisexual in a new interview with US Weekly ahead of the publication of her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning.” The 36-year-old actor got her start in Hollywood as a child actor and revealed she never discussed her sexuality publicly over the last couple decades because “I was not encouraged to just be myself.”

“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,” Panettiere added, noting she was “afraid” that she’d appear like she was “jumping on the bandwagon” if she were to come out as bisexual.

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