“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum Diana Jenkins is denying rumors that Hayden Panettiere is the woman who claimed she got into bed with a “very famous” and “undressed” man when she was 18 years old.
“Princess Diana has had to deal with false rumors online before, and unfortunately this is just one example of that,” a spokesperson for Jenkins told TMZ on Wednesday.
“So let me be 100 per cent clear on this: It is definitely not Princess Diana, and anyone who claims to be Princess Diana will be prosecuted.”
Representatives for Mr. Panettile did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
The “Heroes” star, now 36, shared the harrowing memory both in his new memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” and on Monday’s appearance on his podcast, “On Purpose with Jay Shetty.”
In an interview Monday, Panettiere claimed that he was on a boat with friends when he was led down a flight of stairs and into a “very small” room “by someone who I’ve come to trust and look after me as a protector and someone who has my back.”
“She physically put me in bed next to a man with no clothes on who was very famous,” she recalled, adding that for the unnamed male celebrity “[it was]like this was just an ordinary day for him and this happens all the time.”
In that moment, she said, she went into survival mode and brought out “the lion in me, the fire in me.”
“My hair stood on end and I became violent,” she said. “I thought, ‘That’s not going to happen.'”
However, as they were on a boat on the water, she became trapped with a woman who trapped her in a dangerous position.
“There was no jumping or swimming away,” she explained. “Then I realized that no one else could relate to my situation and that this was nothing new to them.”
The situation taught the “Nashville” star that after living a “very nice life,” she thought she was “very mature” at the time, but learned that wasn’t exactly true.
“So even though I felt like I could make healthy and safe decisions, I wasn’t fully aware of what was going on around me,” she said.
Panettiere declined to name the woman involved in this story. But internet sleuths quickly deduced that the woman was Jenkins, based on Starr’s once close friendship.
“This is Me: A Reckoning” is available for purchase now.
