Hayden Panettiere reflects on dating 30-year-old co-star when she was just 18

17 years later, Heroes favourite Hayden Panettiere feels no different about her 12-year-age-gap relationship with co-star Milo Ventimiglia.

In the cult superhero drama, which originally ran on NBC for four series in as many years, Panettiere portrayed unbreakable cheerleader Claire Bennet, while Ventimiglia appeared as mimicry specialist Peter Petrelli.

As the international popularity of Heroes soared, the actors struck up a romance behind the scenes, lasting nearly two years.

Panettiere is currently promoting her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, and whilst chatting to Entertainment Weekly she was asked about this particular time in her love life.

"That's hard. My daughter's 11, so I'm trying to think of how I would feel," she told the publication.

"I'm sure she's going to do exactly what mummy did. I'm ready and prepared for it, but I think it's about the person.

"I was working with him all the time. My family knew him well. I was also... At 18, I lived so much life that he almost couldn't count me as being 18.

"So Milo and I, even though he was 30, had a lot more in common than people might think."

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

Panettiere, who went on to marry heavyweight boxing great Wladimir Klitschko before coming out as bisexual just a few months ago, also mentioned that if her age-gap boyfriend had in fact been somebody 'creepy' or 'inappropriate', they'd have never 'allowed it to happen'.

In a separate conversation with US Weekly, the 36-year-old admitted that she viewed Ventimiglia as her partner and that their relationship was going to evolve into a marriage.

"But it was a point of contention that I was unable to put the 'I' in front of 'love you' and at the time," she recalled.

"I didn't realise or understand why it made me feel so uncomfortable. I could only say 'love you' in a casual way. Being older, he was much more aware of what that meant. And that said a lot."

In the end, Ventimiglia called the whole thing off, yet his girlfriend's 'visceral' emotional reaction forced him to 'immediately' reverse the dumping. Temporarily, at least.

Albert L. Ortega/WireImage)

Elsewhere on her promotional tour, the actress spoke on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast about the time she was allegedly placed in a disturbing situation on a boat as a teenager.

Recounting the 'shocking' incident, Panettiere explained that she had no idea of the unnamed man's intentions until she was led downstairs to a 'very small room' where he was awaiting her, undressed.

"It was led by somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector and somebody who had my back," she said.

"She physically put me in the bed next to this undressed man who was very famous."

Panettiere's survival synapses quickly began to spark.

"That lion in me, that fire in me... my hair stood on end and I became ferocious. I was like, ‘This is not happening.’"

She fled from the room and spent the rest of the night hiding on the boat, as she was literally out at sea.