Neutrogena issued a public apology to Hayden Panettiere on Thursday for dropping her contract in 2015 while she battled postpartum depression.
The skincare brand posted its statement to Instagram Thursday, days after the “Heroes” actress died Sunday at age 36 of an apparent overdose at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina. “We understand that we made her feel unsupported during a very difficult time,” the company wrote. “This is not what Neutrogena stands for or who we want to be.”
Neutrogena, 36, had represented the brand for roughly a decade after first signing on at about age 16 in 2005. The company noted it was “deeply saddened” by her death and “proud to have partnered with her.” The statement continued, “Hayden’s courage in sharing her challenges helped inspire important conversations and awareness.”
The brand also announced a new initiative, writing, “We are 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.” It vowed to “share more details with this community when plans are in place.”
Neutrogena explained its timing, stating, “Out of respect for Hayden’s family and loved ones, we did not want to speak out so soon following her passing.” The post concluded, “Everyone at Neutrogena extends their deepest condolences to Hayden’s family and all who loved her.”
Panettiere had detailed the 2015 split in her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” released May 19. She claimed Neutrogena “canceled [her] long-standing contract” over her allegedly breaking a morality clause after she discussed her postpartum depression following daughter Kaya’s December 2014 birth. “I labored with Kaya for 14 hours and was in surgery for three hours after she was born,” she wrote. “When I woke up in the recovery room, I was exhausted, disoriented, and racked with pain.”
The “Nashville” alum wrote that her struggles cost her that role too, a move that “killed me because I’d always prided myself on my professionalism,” She added, “My fans and the press were hugely sympathetic — and I’ll always be grateful for that — but a part of my career I’d come to depend on suffered.” She described Neutrogena’s decision as “yet another blow in a year that had given almost nothing else.”
In her May appearance on Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast, Panettiere, 36, elaborated on the Neutrogena call. “When I got that call that Neutrogena wanted to fire me over that, my representative at the time said, ‘That’s illegal. You can’t do that,'” she recalled. She noted the company simply didn’t renew its contract when the time came up. “That being the thing where they drew the line was shocking to me,” she said.
She had made the disclosure that triggered the split during a September 2015 appearance on “Live! With Kelly and Michael.” During that interview, she called PPD “something that’s completely uncontrollable” and both “really painful” and “really scary,” emphasizing that “women need a lot of support,” She added, “Women are amazing. We do something that no man can do on this planet. I mean, we grow a human being in our body!”
In the viral moment that set off the chain of professional consequences, Panettiere’s candor about postpartum depression on daytime television in 2015 led directly to Neutrogena’s contract decision and became a defining episode in her later accounts of how openly discussing maternal mental health carried professional risks. She said around her memoir release that she had “no idea when I walked off that stage that I was going to get the call saying, ‘Neutrogena wants to fire you. They’re not OK with this.'” She added, “Wait a second, of all the things, how can they judge me about something that is so human and so real?”
Following her death, fans flooded social media demanding boycotts of the brand. One fan wrote, “I will never buy one of their products again in my life.” Critics also resurfaced a 2023 Neutrogena Threads post reading, “Friends don’t let friends go to bed without removing their makeup,” with commenters firing back, “Friends don’t drop friends when they’re suffering but hey” and “Well this did not age well. Y’all really did Hayden dirty.”
Panettiere’s death remains under investigation by authorities, who have reported no signs of trauma or foul play at the scene.