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Neutrogena broke its silence Thursday following the death of Hayden Panettiere and mounting backlash over the skincare brand’s alleged treatment of the actress, acknowledging that it made her “feel unsupported during a very difficult time.”
Panettiere, known for her roles in “Nashville” and “Remember the Titans,” died Sunday at 36 after she was found unresponsive and in cardiac arrest at an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina.
Preliminary autopsy results found no signs of trauma that contributed to her death, Fox News Digital previously confirmed.
In the days following her death, fans unearthed comments made by Panettiere, who worked with Neutrogena from 2005 to 2015, in which she claimed the skincare brand cut ties with her after she spoke publicly about her experience with postpartum depression (PPD).
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Neutrogena’s social media posts were subsequently flooded with negative comments, with some users calling for a boycott of the brand.
Neutrogena addressed the backlash in an Instagram post Thursday, saying it was “deeply saddened” by Panettiere’s death.
“For more than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena community,” the brand wrote. “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.”
“Hayden’s courage in sharing her challenges helped inspire important conversations and awareness,” the post continued. “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. We will share more details with this community when plans are in place.”
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The brand said it had initially refrained from publicly commenting on Panettiere’s death out of respect for her family.
In her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” released earlier this year, Panettiere wrote that Neutrogena wanted to end its long-term relationship with her after she spoke publicly about her experience with PPD.
During an appearance on Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast in May, Panettiere said she had not planned to discuss postpartum depression when the subject came up during a 2015 interview on “Live! With Kelly and Michael.”
“I had no intention of, or plan to, talk about postpartum depression. It just came up, and I was just being honest,” she said.
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“Never for a second did I think that anyone … cared, that anyone would have a bad reaction to it. It was my truth.”
Panettiere said losing the Neutrogena partnership was “the last thing that I thought they would ever fire me over.”
“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, that I was not gonna be invited back the next year, and I had worked with those people for 10 years.”
Panettiere’s death came just weeks after she spoke publicly about her past struggles with addiction and the difficult decisions she made while seeking help.
Fox News previously reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been contacted and is assisting in the investigation into Panettiere’s death.
FOX Business has reached out to Neutrogena for additional comment.
Fox News Digital’s Lorraine Taylor and Stepheny Price and Fox News’ Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
