James Blunt wants to put a stop to the rumors that he’s the “undressed” and “very famous” man Hayden Panettiere found herself in bed with on a yacht when she was just 18 years old.
The singer, 52, posted a link to a Substack article by journalist Dean Piper on X Monday, which debunks the rumors that Blunt is the unnamed man Panettiere was talking about in her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning.”
In Piper’s article titled “Hayden Panettiere and James Blunt – An Internet Lynching,” he noted that he wrote an article about Panttiere and Blunt at the amfAR charity event in Cannes in 2009.
“They’d arrived together, had been flirty throughout and had gone to the afterparty together,” Piper recalled. “They were photographed on a boat the next day, smiling and having fun.”
Years later, the pics of Blunt and Panettiere together on a boat led to the rumors that the “You’re Beautiful” singer was the man Panettiere was referring to. But Piper points out that the timeline of the two’s interaction doesn’t fit.
“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.”
Piper also argues that in Panettiere’s story of the disturbing encounter, she says she fled from the room and hid somewhere else on the boat — which in his opinion, wouldn’t match up with her and Blunt being seen together multiple times.
“It takes nothing to work out that the cabin incident was the first and last time she met the man,” he wrote. “So, pictures of Blunt and Panettiere at the amfAR charity event and together on the boat again the next day mean only one thing – he’s really not your man.”
In May, Panettiere appeared on the “On Purpose with Jay Shetty” podcast and went into detail about the yacht incident. She recalled that she thought she was having a fun night out on a boat with friends, but was then taken “by surprise” and felt “in danger.”
The “Heroes” star said she was “led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back” down the stairs into a “very small” room.
“She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous,” she remembered.
“There was no jumping off and swimming away,” she added. “And there was nobody who was going to be empathetic to my situation. I realized that this was nothing new to them.”
“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum Diana Jenkins later shut down rumors that she was the woman Panettiere claimed put her in bed, after fans brought up their formerly close friendship.
“Diana has had to deal with false online rumors before, and sadly this is just another example of that,” Jenkins’ spokesperson told TMZ. “So let me be 100 percent clear about this: It most certainly is not Diana, and anyone who claims it is her will be sued.”
Panettiere died last Sunday of an apparent overdose. She was 36 years old.
Read the full article here
