Four days after the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, Neutrogena released a statement acknowledging that it had made her feel unsupported, but stopped short of issuing an apology. According to Rolling Stone, the statement came after the actress's death at age 36 triggered widespread public backlash and calls to boycott the brand.
Panettiere had been one of the faces of Neutrogena for more than a decade, signing with the global skincare brand as a teenager in 2005. The partnership ended after she appeared on a 2015 episode of Live with Kelly and Michael and spoke publicly about battling postpartum depression. In her 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, and in promotional interviews, Panettiere alleged that while her Neutrogena contract was not immediately terminated, it was not renewed the following year due to what she was told was a violation of the brand's morals clause.
"Of all the things, too, that they would fire me over, this was the last thing I thought they would fire me over," Panettiere said on the On Purpose podcast. "I had worked with these people for 10 years and I remember not hearing a word from anybody. I remember that really breaking my heart."
After her death, interviews in which she discussed the severed partnership resurfaced and prompted the public backlash Neutrogena now faced. The company's statement read: "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."
The company also announced it was making a financial investment to an unnamed community health partner to expand access to postpartum depression care. It said it would share more details when plans were in place. Neutrogena said it had delayed its public response out of respect for Panettiere's family.
In her own words, Panettiere had been direct about what she wanted people to understand about postpartum depression. "That it's real," she told On Purpose host Jay Shetty. "That it's not something we make up. It's not something we want. It's not that we've lost our marbles. It's not something we want to go through and we're not lying when we tell you something's wrong."
"We want to be with our brand new child and be filled with joy and feel like the luckiest person in the world and capture every moment," she said. "For anyone to think otherwise is just misinformed."
Neutrogena has not named the health partner that will receive its investment, and no timeline for that announcement has been set.
