The Hayden Panettiere and Neutrogena Controversy, Explained

After the sudden death of Hayden Panettiere was reported on August 17, tributes from her co-stars have poured out, fans have looked back on their favorite memories from her work in TV and film, and news updates have continued to come out as her cause of death is investigated. Amid all of this, there have also been calls for a boycott of a major beauty brand related to its connection to the actor.Hayden had a longstanding working relationship with Neutrogena that she claimed was terminated after she spoke out about suffering from postpartum depression. Now, her commentary about the situation has resurfaced online and Neutrogena has responded.Hayden worked with Neutrogena for yearsJon Kopaloff//Getty ImagesHayden began working with Neutrogena in the mid-2000s when she was still a teenager. This was around the time that she started starring on Heroes, but she had already made a name for herself as a child star with roles in projects including Guiding Light and Remember the Titans.Hayden continued to be a Neutrogena ambassador until 2015, and she claimed earlier this year that her contract was severed after she spoke out about postpartum depression.Hayden was treated for postpartum depression after welcoming her daughterHayden welcomed her daughter, Kaya, in 2014 with her then-partner Wladimir Klitschko. A few months later, she entered a treatment facility for postpartum depression and she later spoke out about experiencing PPD.“There’s a lot of misunderstanding,” Hayden said about the diagnosis during a 2015 appearance on Live! With Kelly and Michael (via Today). “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.”Hayden said speaking out made Neutrogena end her contractNBC//Getty ImagesDuring a May episode of On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Hayden claimed that she was fired by Neutrogena after sharing about her experience with PPD.Add Cosmopolitan as a preferred source in your Google search results.Use your Google account to add this to your settings.“Neutrogena was a huge part of my life,” she said (via E! News). “I had the morals clause. They caught absolutely everything and of all the things that they would fire me over, this is the last thing that I thought they would ever fire me over.”She said that she wasn’t planning to speak publicly about postpartum depression, but was “just being honest” and never imagined someone would have a negative reaction to it.“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,” Hayden continued, “that I was not gonna be invited back the next year and I had worked with those people for 10 years.” Additionally, she claimed that no one from the company reached out to her afterward. “I remember that really breaking my heart,” she said.Hayden’s death reminded people of her commentsIn addition to being open about her diagnosis with PPD, Hayden also shared about other struggles, including addiction, in interviews and in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, which came out in May. Now, in light of her passing, her comments about Neutrogena from earlier this year began circulating online with fans believing they show a lack of support from the company during what was one hard time of many for Hayden. Some fans on Reddit have called for a boycott.According to ABC News, Hayden was in cardiac arrest when authorities arrived at the South Carolina residence where she was located. The Greenville City Police Department in South Carolina is investigating her death and being assisted by the Drug Enforcement Administration.Neutrogena released a statementOn Thursday, August 20, Neutrogena shared a statement on Instagram in response to Hayden’s resurfaced comments and her untimely death.“We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing,” the statement reads. “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.”The company goes on to say that it 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,” and that details of this investment will be shared at a later date. The statement concludes with condolences for “Hayden’s family and all who loved her.”