What to Know
Actress Hayden Panettiere recently admitted that she thinks it’s pretty “sad” that she felt she couldn’t come out as bisexual until age 36. However, her mother, whom Hayden is estranged from, seems to be questioning this narrative. Hayden recently told Us Weekly that she hadn’t spoken up about her sexuality before because it was “never the right time.” But Hayden’s mom, Lesley Vogel, seemingly thinks Hayden’s bisexuality was never really a secret and has questions about the timing of her coming-out story.
Hayden explained why she waited to come out as bisexual.
In an interview published on May 6, the actress revealed that she was previously “afraid” of coming out as bisexual, but now, she feels “comfortable” speaking up about it. A lot of her hesitancy seemed to come from the fear that she could be accused of “jumping on the bandwagon” or going through a phase.
She told the publication that she “was not encouraged to just be myself” and instead felt like she had to be “perfect.” Coming out didn’t necessarily feel like an option. “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,” she explained.
She added, “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…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?”
However, her mom has pushed back on this narrative.
Hayden and her mother are currently estranged, but Lesley still reacted to her daughter’s coming-out story while speaking to The Daily Mail. She acted confused by Hayden’s comments about hiding her attraction to women from the public.
“I do not believe it was being hidden, but there is no historic proof that this is the case,” her mom told the publication. She also seemed to question why Hayden decided to share this story now, at age 36. “I do think the timing of this coming out is very interesting,” she added.
Of course, Hayden is currently promoting her upcoming memoir.
So, it’s really not all that surprising that Hayden decided to publicly come out at this point in time. She acknowledged that she started thinking about sharing this with the public as she worked on her memoir, which makes sense.
While writing, Hayden seemed to realize that she should open up about her sexuality (presumably because of some of the stories and topics that are discussed in her book). “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?'” she explained to Us Weekly.
She added, “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!”
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