Neutrogena Admits to Making Hayden Panettiere Feel ‘Unsupported’ After Dropping Her

Hayden Panettiere, who died this week, said that Neutrogena dropped her after she spoke openly about her postpartum depression. She said that this came as a major blow to her. Amid growing backlash after her death, the company put out a statement. 

Hayden Panettiere said Neutrogena dropped her after she spoke about postpartum depression

After giving birth to her daughter, Kaya, Panettiere said she began experiencing postpartum depression. She discussed this publicly. Panettiere said this wasn’t anything she’d planned on talking about, but “it just came up and I was just being honest and never for a second did I think that anyone cared or that anyone would have a bad reaction to it.”

She spent ten years working with Neutrogena. On the On Purpose With Jay Shetty podcast, Panettiere said they dropped her after she spoke about her depression.

“And so when I got that call that Neutrogena wanted to fire me over that, and my representative at the time said, ‘That’s illegal you can’t do that,’ I knew that that was gonna be it, that I was not gonna be invited back the next year, and I had worked with those people for 10 years.”

Neutrogena put out a statement after Hayden Panettiere’s death

Neutrogena faced criticism after Panettiere spoke about her experience with them. After her death, the criticism intensified. The company put out a statement in response.

“We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing,” Neutrogena wrote on Instagram. “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. Hayden’s courage in sharing her challenges helped inspire important conversations and awareness.”

The brand noted that they will be making a “significant investment to a long-standing community health partner to help give more women access to the support they need, including care for postpartum depression.” They will reveal more when they have plans in place.

“Out of respect for Hayden’s family and loved ones, we did not want to speak out so soon following her passing,” the statement says. “Everyone at Neutrogena extends their deepest condolences to Hayden’s family and all who loved her.”

She said she felt like part of her died after giving birth

Panettiere said that she realized something was wrong immediately after giving birth. She admitted that the first time she saw her daughter, she “felt nothing.”

“I wasn’t OK,” Panettiere wrote in This Is Me: A Reckoning. “I had to figure out how to bond with her. It felt like an insurmountable task, and I was only on the first day.”

She began to rely on alcohol to deal with these feelings.

“It wasn’t panic that was sitting in my chest. It was nothing,” she wrote. “A total blackout of emotion, like my soul was dead.”