James Blunt has shared an article on social media denying rumours that when Hayden Panettiere was 18, she was introduced to him on a yacht and encouraged by her friend to "get into bed" with him.
Blunt shares article denying claims
The You're Beautiful singer posted a link to an article titled "Hayden Panettiere and James Blunt - An Internet Lyching" on the WTF With Dean Piper Substack page to his X/Twitter account on 24 August. He accompanied the link with a pair of eye emojis.
Piper stated that Blunt is not the person Hayden refers to in her autobiography, writing: "People are saying whatever they like and getting away with it and that is wrong. Guys, it only takes the smallest of AI searches to find out that in May 2009, when the pictures of Blunt and Panettiere were taken, she was 19, almost 20. So, if the incident happened when she was 18, Blunt's not your guy to start with."
Panettiere's autobiography account
"And as she says she hadn't met the man before the incident, and that she fled the boat immediately after, it takes nothing to work out that the cabin incident was the first and last time she met the man," Piper added.
Daily Star has reached out to James Blunt's representatives for comment.
Dean Piper's comments come after the death of Hayden Panettiere, three months after the release of her autobiography This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she recalled a traumatic experience on a yacht.
Hayden's death and aftermath
Hayden alleged that someone she trusted took her downstairs where "a famous thirty-something British singer-songwriter [was] lying in a bed". She did not name the man.
She said her friend told her to "get in bed with him" and that he "has a huge d***." She then recalled: "My thoughts were a blur, but I'd spent my life trusting that others had my best interests at heart. Being 'managed' was routine, to the point where I lost faith in my intuition."
Hayden changed her mind and left the room. She then went to her cabin and left the yacht afterwards. The actress died on 16 August 2026 aged 36.
