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Hayden Panettiere spoke of her relationship with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Diana Jenkins in her 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, months before she tragically died of an apparent overdose at just 36-years-old in Greenville, South Carolina.
After meeting amid the making of Room 23, a coffee photography book by Diana, 52, and photographer Deborah Anderson, which also featured Lindsay Lohan, 40, and Amanda Bynes, 40, Hayden, who was around 19 at the time, described the nature of their friendship.
“Diana was almost thirty years older than me, and while I’d always been mature for my age, it’s impossible to overlook an age difference that large,” Hayden wrote, via Entertainment Now. “It was a weird friendship for sure, but as I stretched into my newfound adulthood, I had to see which relationships suited me, on my own terms. At that moment, Diana seemed like she could give me everything I needed.”
The women were later spotted together at the Room 23 launch party in February 2009.
As RHOBH fans may recall, Diana was forced to speak out on the heels of the release of Hayden’s memoir in May. This came after internet users began to suspect she was the woman that Hayden said had pushed her into bed with a naked man on a boat when she was just 18-years-old.
After Hayden spoke of the encounter on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, Diana released a statement, via her rep.
“Diana has had to deal with false online rumors before, and sadly this is just another example of that. So let me be 100% clear about this: It most certainly is not Diana, and anyone who claims it is her will be sued,” the rep warned in their statement to TMZ.
Diana Jenkins was featured in a full-time role on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 12.