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‘Scream’ Actress Comes Out as Bisexual

Actress Hayden Panettiere revealed that she has dated women in the past.

Hayden Panettiere is publicly opening up about her sexuality for the first time ahead of her upcoming memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, due out May 19. Speaking to Us Weekly, the Scream actress said she finally feels ready to share a part of herself that she has kept hidden away for decades. “I’m comfortable to confidently say that yes, I am bisexual. I said it! This is the first time I got to say it out loud,” she revealed. Panettiere said she long felt unable to fully be herself while growing up in the spotlight. “I was too young, and I was being forced to be perfect at all times,” she said. “I was not encouraged to just be myself.” The Golden Globe nominee, who was previously engaged to former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko and shares a nine-year-old daughter with him, said she had dated women in the past but found it “scary” because paparazzi constantly followed her. The 36-year-old actress admits that, while she’s “sad” it took this long to live openly, she struck an optimistic tone as she looked ahead: “Better late than never, right?”