Key Takeaways
- Hayden Panettiere said Neutrogena effectively ended their decade-long partnership after she spoke candidly about her severe postpartum depression on Live with Kelly and Michael, calling the move heartbreaking and unexpected given how central the brand had been to her career.
- After Panettiere’s death at 36 and the resurfacing of her allegations, Neutrogena’s parent company Kenvue has seen a modest stock slide amid boycott calls.
- The brand remains publicly silent and continues to face scrutiny over past product safety issues.
Neutrogena’s silence is drawing more scrutiny. Shares of parent company Kenvue Inc. have fallen as the skincare brand faces mounting backlash over Hayden Panettiere’s claim that it dropped her for speaking publicly about postpartum depression. Kenvue stock recently traded near $19.14 as calls to boycott Neutrogena spread following Panettiere’s death at 36 on Aug. 16.
According to AdWeek, Neutrogena as a brand does not trade independently, and the decline in Kenvue shares has been relatively modest—not the full-scale crash suggested by some reports. There is also no definitive evidence tying the movement exclusively to the Panettiere controversy. But the timing has put additional pressure on a brand already confronting a damaging question: Why has Neutrogena still not addressed an allegation made by one of its most recognizable former ambassadors?
Panettiere represented Neutrogena from 2005 to 2015, appearing in the splash-heavy skincare commercials that became a fixture of her early fame. During a May appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, she alleged that the company moved to end their decade-long partnership after she discussed postpartum depression on Live With Kelly and Michael in 2015.
“Neutrogena was a huge part of my life,” she said. “Of all the things that they would fire me over, this is the last thing that I thought they would ever fire me over.”
The actress said she never planned to discuss her condition during the television interview. “It just came up, and I was just being honest,” she recalled. “Never for a second did I think that anyone cared or that anyone would have a bad reaction to it. It was my truth.”
Panettiere said her representative warned Neutrogena that firing her over postpartum depression would be illegal, but she understood the company could simply let her contract expire. She said no one from the brand contacted her afterward. “I had worked with those people for 10 years,” she said. “I remember that really breaking my heart.”
Panettiere gave birth to her daughter, Kaya, in 2014 and entered treatment for severe postpartum depression in 2015 and 2016.
An autopsy found no trauma that contributed to her death, and police reported no evidence of foul play. Her official cause and manner of death remain under investigation.
Neutrogena has previously faced scrutiny over recalled aerosol sunscreens, contaminated makeup wipes, and safety concerns involving its discontinued LED acne mask.
