Hayden Panettiere's Memoir Tells All — Including Bombshell Revelation About Her Sexuality

She first entered the public consciousness in the early 1990s, when she was barely out of toddlerhood.

And since then, Hayden Panettiere has become a household name, starring in some major series and movies, cementing herself as a Hollywood darling all before the age of 36.

In May 2026, she released a memoir that covered the extraordinary events of her life, from her child stardom to her dating history, and everything in between.

She also dropped a bombshell revelation about her sexuality. Here's what we know about what Hayden had to say on the topic.

Hayden's memoir, titled “This Is Me: A Reckoning," is scheduled to release May 19, 2026, and ahead of the book's release, she spoke to Us Weekly about some of the revelations fans would find within its pages.

Including, shockingly, an update on her sexuality,

Hayden shared, "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 added, "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?’ 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.”

The actor revealed that she is bisexual, and says that she was never encouraged to be herself, which is why she never opened up publicly about her experience dating women.

"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.”

Hayden continued, "And once again, it was always the fear of not being perfect, and what my team was going to think about it, what the public’s opinion was going to be about it. It was just never the right time, and it was a very difficult topic to articulate properly. I wanted to make sure that I really sat down and chose my words carefully and was able to tell my story in an honest way, that people understood. On one hand, it’s sad that I had to wait till I was 36 years old to share that part of me, but better late than never, right?”

She was once afraid of being perceived as having jumped on the bandwagon, but she's leaving that fear behind, sharing, "Now that I know that this book is coming out, and that I’ve chosen to share it with the world, I’m comfortable saying I’m bisexual. I’m comfortable to confidently say that, yes, I am bisexual. I said it!”

But the memoir goes beyond her sexuality, taking readers back to what it was like to be a child star, and through the intervening years as she navigated growing up and fame.

She also talked about substance use, becoming a mom, dealing with postpartum depression, her health challenges, and more, according to Us Weekly.

The memoir is a surprisingly open and refreshing look at an actor who's been around long enough that fans may have thought they knew everything there was to know.

But as with her revelation about her sexuality, it's clear that there's much more to the 36-year-old than the public knows.