Hayden Panettiere comes out as bisexual at 36 and reveals heartbreak over losing custody of daughter Kaya

Hayden Panettiere has revealed she is bisexual, opening up publicly for the first time about relationships with women and describing the fear and scrutiny that kept her silent for years.

She was a child star but her breakout role happened when she was 16, starring in Heroes and many other shows and movies including Bring It On: All Or Nothing (2006), Racing Stripes (2005) and Ice Princess (2005).

The 36-year-old has opened up about her sexuality in her upcoming memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, and spoke in a new interview with Us Weekly ahead of its release.

Before now, Panettiere had only been publicly linked to men, including The Hills star Stephen Colletti, her Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia, and Ukrainian boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, who she shares an 11-year-old daughter with.

‘That’s something about me I was never able to share’

Speaking about her sexuality, Panettiere said she had long felt unable to speak openly.

“That’s something about me I was never able to share with the world, because it was just never the right time,” she told Us Weekly about being bisexual.

“It was either I was too young, and I was being forced to be perfect at all times. I was not encouraged to just be myself,” she continued, before adding that there was a time in Hollywood where women saying they were bisexual was a bit of a “fad.”

“I was afraid that if I was honest, it was going to be like me jumping on the bandwagon,” she explained.

“It was a very difficult topic to articulate properly. It’s sad I had to wait until I was 36 years old to share that part of me, but better late than never, right?”

“Now that I know that this book is coming out, and that I’ve chosen to share it with the world, I’m comfortable to confidently say that yes, I am bisexual,” added Hayden. “I said it! This is the first time I got to say it out loud.”

‘I have dated women’

Panettiere also detailed her past experiences dating women, saying constant public scrutiny made it difficult to fully explore those relationships.

“Yeah, I did. It was scary, though, because there were paparazzi always waiting for me outside, to follow me everywhere. I had very little privacy,” she explained.

“I have dated women. I was much more into women even as a child than I was men. I have explored it, but because I hadn’t shared this with anybody, I didn’t really have the courage to throw myself fully emotionally into it,” Panettiere continued.

“Because then if I did fall in love, that wasn’t something that I wanted to ever have to hide.”

Losing custody of her daughter

Panettiere also spoke about the most painful period of her life, which unfolded after her split from Klitschko and her struggles with postpartum depression and addiction.

The couple share a daughter, Kaya, born in 2014. After their separation, and following Panettiere’s second stint in rehab, Klitschko gained full custody. Their daughter then moved to live with her father in Ukraine.

For Panettiere, the physical distance from her child became the most devastating consequence of that period.

“It was a living nightmare, and I felt so out of control. There’s nothing that I could do about it,” Panettiere said.

She described the day her daughter moved to Ukraine as “absolutely one of the worst days of my life, and will always be.”

Despite this, she says she and Klitschko have worked to rebuild a stable co-parenting relationship.

Co-parenting and life now

Panettiere says she now has a strong relationship with Klitschko as they raise their daughter across continents.

“I have an incredible relationship with both of them,” she said of where they stand now.

“I’m so grateful for Wlad. We’re very close, and have had a deep friendship, along with a relationship, since I met him when I was 19.”

“So to see that we still have this bond and the ability to coparent and show our daughter, even though we’re not together, doesn’t mean that there’s a lack of love here, and it doesn’t mean that you’re unsafe,” she continued.

“And my daughter, she’s just an incredible gift. She’s otherworldly and so kind and so fierce and surrounded by good people, and it’s incredible for me to be able to watch her thrive in areas that I struggled with growing up. She’s just the best thing, all the best parts of me and Wlad.”