Heroes and Scream star Hayden Panettiere comes out publicly as bisexual

Hayden Panettiere has come out publicly as bisexual, writing about her sexuality in her upcoming memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning.

The actor and singer, best known for roles in Heroes, Nashville and Scream, discusses dating women and growing up while hiding that part of herself in the book, which is released on 19 May.

Speaking to Us Weekly, Panettiere said the subject only came up while she was writing the memoir.

“I’ve chosen to be completely brutally honest about this” – Hayden Panettiere on coming out in This Is Me: A Reckoning

“The first time it even crossed my mind to touch on this subject was while I was in the process of writing this book,” she said.

“It took two years to write this book, and I did not know what I was going to feel comfortable touching on … and what stories were naturally going to come up, and the fact that that did come up, I was like, ‘Why not?’”

Panettiere said she decided to include it because she wanted the book to reflect her life honestly.

“I’ve chosen to be completely brutally honest about this, and that’s something about me that I was never able to share with the world, because it was just never the right time,” she said.

Panettiere was previously engaged to former heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko

The 36-year-old also spoke about the pressure she felt while growing up as a child actor, saying she did not feel able to openly discuss her sexuality at the time.

Panettiere said she was “not encouraged to just be myself”, adding that fears around public reaction and industry expectations stopped her from coming out sooner.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Golden Globe nominee confirmed she has dated women, saying those relationships began when she was young.

Panettiere was previously engaged to former heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko, with whom she shares an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya. She was most recently linked to Brian Hickerson.

This Is Me: A Reckoning is published on 19 May.