Hayden Panettiere Says Neutrogena Ended Partnership After She Disclosed Postpartum Depression Battle

Hayden Panettiere is opening up in her forthcoming memoir about a difficult period in her life—and the professional consequences that followed her decision to speak candidly about postpartum depression.

In "This is Me: A Reckoning," the actress details the traumatic circumstances surrounding the birth of her daughter Kaya in 2014. She endured a grueling labor lasting 14 hours, followed by emergency surgery that extended three additional hours. During the C-section, complications arose when her blood failed to clot properly, forcing physicians to seal blood vessels in her uterus to prevent life-threatening hemorrhaging.

"I had seven transfusions and ran a fever the entire time," Panettiere writes in an excerpt from her memoir. "My uterus had become infected, and the antibiotics I'd been given during labor hadn't been strong enough to lower my temperature. When I woke up in the recovery room, I was exhausted, disoriented, and racked with pain."

The physical ordeal took a severe psychological toll. Panettiere found herself struggling with her mental health in the aftermath, describing how she "needed a drink to function" during this period.

The health crisis forced her to step back from her role on the television series Nashville. "The producers had no choice but to write me out of the script temporarily — something that killed me because I'd always prided myself on my professionalism — and I issued a statement about where I was going and why," she reflects in the memoir. While fans and media outlets responded with compassion, the temporary absence still impacted her career trajectory.

In 2015, Panettiere appeared on Live! to discuss her postpartum depression publicly, working to destigmatize the condition. She explained the widespread misconceptions surrounding it, noting that many people misunderstand what postpartum depression actually entails.

"When [you're told] about postpartum depression you think it's 'I feel negative feelings towards my child, I want to injure or hurt my child.' I've never, ever had those feelings," she stated at the time. "It's something, I think, that needs to be talked about, and women need to know that they're not alone."

She emphasized how the condition is often dismissed or minimized. "There's a lot of misunderstanding. There's a lot of people out there that think that it's not real, that it's not true. That it's something that's made up in their minds, that, 'Oh, it's hormones.' They brush it off. It's something that's completely uncontrollable. It's really painful and it's really scary and women need a lot of support."

According to Panettiere's account in her memoir, her willingness to openly discuss her mental health struggles came with an unexpected cost. Shortly after her public statements about postpartum depression, the skincare company Neutrogena ended their partnership with her.

"Neutrogena canceled my long-standing contract, and it was yet another blow in a year that had given almost nothing else," she writes.

Reflecting on that challenging time, Panettiere acknowledges the depth of her struggle. "I had postpartum depression, and it sucked. I wanted more than anything to get back to that place of happiness, but I didn't even know where that place was anymore."