Neutrogena admits it made Hayden Panettiere feel 'unsupported'
Skincare firm 'deeply saddened' by death of actress who was face of the brand for 10 years
Neutrogena has said it is saddened to hear Hayden Panettiere has died, with the actress having said the skincare brand dropped her while she had postpartum depression.
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Panettiere died on Sunday, aged 36, having released an autobiography in May, in which she said the loss of her brand deal with Neutrogena after ten years in 2015 had been a personal blow in a difficult year.
When the news resurfaced that the company had cut ties after she had admitted to postpartum depression, fans started a movement to boycott its products.
Neutrogena said on Friday: "We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere’s passing.
“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.”
Read also: Wladimir Klitschko feeling 'shock and grief' at death of ex-partner Hayden Panettiere
The actress, best known for roles in Heroes, Racing Stripes and Nashville, was a child star but had troubles in her personal life in the 2010s.
She wrote in her autobiography This Is Me: A Reckoning that she had been dropped as a face of Neutrogena after suffering postpartum depression in 2014 following the birth of her daughter, Kaya.
She had written: “Neutrogena [in 2015] cancelled my long-standing contract, and it was yet another blow in a year that had given almost nothing else.”
Speaking on a podcast in May, she added: “Neutrogena was a huge part of my life. I had the morals clauses; they caught absolutely everything.
"And of all the things, this is the last thing that I thought they would ever fire me for.”
She had been the face of the brand for ten years up until 2015.