Hayden Panettiere reveals 'respected' Oscar winner exposed himself at party at 19

Hayden Panettiere claims a renowned Oscar laureate once exposed himself to her during a party at the age of 19.

In her book, This Is Me: A Reckoning, out now, the Nashville actress, 36, recounts attending a private gathering with a friend when she says a “highly regarded” and "Oscar-winning actor and director" exposed himself to her as she was about to leave.

Panettiere mentioned that after engaging in some casual conversation with several men at the event, she felt increasingly uneasy and decided it was time to depart.

As relayed in the memoir, an unnamed man approached her as she was putting on her coat, pointing out a spot he said was gum on his trousers. “I looked down and recoiled,” Panettiere wrote. “This esteemed, award-winning actor's privates were hanging out of his unzipped fly.”

Although the actress mentioned the incident didn’t cause physical harm, it left her shaken and perplexed. "The supposed gum on his trousers baffled me,” she notes. “It didn’t physically harm me, and I guessed it was a drunken prank, but seeing an adult man acting in such a manner was bewildering to me.”

Panettiere explained that she opted not to tell her friend about what happened at the time as she thought “the moment had passed” and figured “some older gentlemen had grown up lacking common courtesy.”

Panettiere spoke about another troubling experience from her past on the May 11 episode of the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast.

Host Jay Shetty brought up another chapter from her book where Panettiere describes being taken onto a boat at 18 and left in a room beside an “unclothed” older man.

“Thinking back to being 18, despite having lived such a full life and considering myself mature at that age … scientifically, our brains—our frontal lobes—aren’t fully developed until we’re what, 25, 26?” Panettiere explained. “Even though I thought I was capable of making healthy and safe decisions, I wasn’t entirely aware of everything happening around me.”

The actress recounted that her “perspective changed entirely” once she understood she was “in a risky situation,” but said she was already “quite literally far from shore.”

Panettiere described the experience as both “jarring” and frightening, saying it caught her off guard because “there were no prior indicators” that something inappropriate might occur.

According to Panettiere, the individual who invited her onto the boat was someone she had immense trust in and considered “a guardian.”

“This person physically placed me in the bed next to this unclothed man who was very renowned,” Panettiere shared on the podcast, noting that the man behaved “as if this was just another day for him.”

Panettiere remembered going into survival mode and escaping the room, then attempting to find another hiding spot on the boat.

“Jumping off and swimming away wasn’t an option,” she said. “And there was no one sympathetic to my situation. I realised this was an ordinary occurrence for them.”

Panettiere recently elaborated on why she opted not to name certain people in her book. When questioned by The Hollywood Reporter, she noted, "Because it portrayed them poorly and [those I didn’t name] were largely individuals from my field. These are people I might encounter again. I didn’t want to find myself in an awkward position. Although these events happened long ago, it was also a move to protect myself and my publishers from lawsuits by some very enraged celebrities."

This Is Me: A Reckoning by Hayden Panettiere is now available wherever books are sold.