Neutrogena Breaks Silence on Hayden Panettiere Backlash Following Her Death

Danny Moloshok/Reuters Neutrogena has responded to widespread backlash and calls for a boycott sparked by Hayden Panettiere’s claims about the brand, which resurfaced following her sudden death at 36.

The late Nashville actress, who died on August 16, partnered with the beauty company from 2005 to 2015.

Panettiere claimed in her 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning , that the brand ended their partnership after she discussed her experience with postpartum depression on Live With Kelly and Michael in 2015 .

During the 2015 interview with Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan, Panettiere described postpartum depression as “completely uncontrollable, it’s really painful, and it’s really scary, and women need a lot of support.” Panettiere’s claims resurfaced after her shocking death, and thousands of fans started calling for a boycott of Neutrogena, which is owned by Kenvue.

Neutrogena did not immediately respond to The Looker’s request for comment.

“I’ll never ever use a Neutrogena product ever again and I’ll make sure that my daughter doesn’t as well,” one person wrote in the brand’s comment section.

Another added, “Boycott Neutrogena.

Normal women suffer from postpartum depression.

It happens.” On Thursday, Neutrogena released a statement on Instagram that started, “We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing.” The statement continued, “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.” It continued, “Hayden’s courage in sharing her challenges helped inspire important conversations and awareness.” The company also vowed to make “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.” The post’s third and final page appeared to acknowledge what Panettiere’s fans saw as a lack of communication from the brand: “Out of respect for Hayden’s family and loved ones, we did not want to speak out so soon following her passing.

Everyone at Neutrogena extends their deepest condolences to Hayden’s family and all who loved her.” The statement didn’t land well with some of Panettiere’s fans on social media.

Neutrogena turned off comments on the post with its statement, but people still shared their opinions in the comment sections of earlier posts by the brand, which still had commenting enabled.