Neutrogena Responds After Hayden Panettiere’s Troubling Claims Resurface Following Her Death
The skincare brand admitted in a statement that it made the late actress ‘feel unsupported during a very difficult time.’
Neutrogena is facing criticism for its treatment of actress Hayden Panettiere after news broke that she passed away at 36 years old on Sunday.
Panettiere—known for starring in Nashville, Heroes, and Scream 4 and playing Princess Dot in A Bug’s Life—served as an ambassador for the skincare brand for more than a decade. The actress claimed in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, released earlier this year that Neutrogena attempted to end their partnership following an interview in which she discussed post-partum depression.
Panettiere opened up about the experience in a May 2026 appearance on life coach and entrepreneur Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast. She had “no intention of or plan to talk about postpartum depression” while promoting Nashville on Live with Kelly and Michael in 2015, she said on the podcast. But then host Kelly Ripa brought up the fact that Panettiere’s character suffers from postpartum depression on the show, and the actress said it was something she could “very much relate to.”
“When they tell you about postpartum depression, you think [it means] ‘I feel negative feelings towards my child, I want to injure my child, I want to hurt my child.’ I’ve never ever had those feelings—and some women do—but you don’t realize what broad of a spectrum you can really experience,” Panettiere said during the 2015 interview, adding that she thought people needed to shed more light on the topic.
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The actress later told Shetty those comments were “the last thing” she thought Neutrogena would fire her over. She alleges that the brand tried to terminate her contract after the appearance, but her representative intervened, claiming it would be illegal. “Even though she saved the day that year, I knew that that was going to be it,” Panettiere recalled in 2026. “I was not going to be invited back.”
Clips of Panettiere speaking about the experience resurfaced and went viral following her death, causing some Neutrogena customers to propose a boycott in protest of the brand’s alleged actions.
Neutrogena was silent on the issue until yesterday, when it posted the following message on Instagram: “We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing. For more than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena community. We are proud to have partnered with her and understand that we made her feel unsupported during a very difficult time. This is not what Neutrogena stands for or who we want to be.”
Source: www.inc.com
