These are the photos of James Blunt and Hayden Panettiere that sparked wild rumours he was the 'famous British singer' who the actress was put into bed with when she was just 18.
The photos taken in Cannes in 2009 show the pair at an amfAR Aids research charity event with actor Justin Long and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Diana Jenkins.
Other pictures show Blunt and Panettiere with friends on a yacht the day after the party.
Since the actress's tragic death last week, the 2009 photos have sparked wild internet rumours that Blunt is the unnamed musician from her memoir.
On Monday, the speculation prompted him to share a link to a Substack article which argued he was not the 'famous British singer' featured in the book, which was published in May.
In her memoir, Panettiere wrote she was 18 when a friend brought her on to a yacht to meet a British singer-songwriter who was in his 30s at the time, only for her to walk into a cabin and find the man naked in bed.
Photos of James Blunt and Hayden Panettiere together in Cannes have emerged after he addressed the speculation he was the 'famous British singer' who the actress was put into bed with when she was just 18
The photos taken in 2009 show Blunt and Panettiere at an amfAR Aids research charity event with actor Justin Long and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Diana Jenkins
Many internet sleuths had speculated that the unnamed man mentioned in Panettiere's memoir was Blunt, but the Substack article shared by the singer, which was written by journalist Dean Piper, claimed that the timeline does not fit.
When contacted by the Daily Mail in recent months, Blunt's representatives have categorically denied any insinuation that the singer is the one referenced in Hayden's memoir.
Piper had pointed out that the photos of Blunt and Panettiere were actually taken when the actress was 19 years old, nearly 20, at the time.
The rumours were sparked by the photos and a 2009 article written by Piper, which claimed Blunt and Panettiere were flirty at a charity event the day before being spotted on a boat together.
However, Piper claimed in his new piece that if the alleged yacht bed encounter had happened when Panettiere was 18, there was no way that Blunt had been involved.
Blunt did not explicitly deny the claim himself while reposting Piper's assertion that the rumours were untrue.
Writing in a chapter titled Trust, Panettiere wrote in her memoir how she was travelling on a super yacht with other celebrities cruising around the South of France.
The actress said that she was traveling with a 'trusted' female friend, who ultimately encouraged her to get into bed with the singer.
Other pictures show Panettiere and Blunt with friends on a yacht the day after the party
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It was claimed that the women spent multiple days aboard the yacht, during which they swam in the sea, danced long into the night and rubbed elbows with the ship's other famous passengers.
But Panettiere alleges that her trip took a more disturbing course one night, when her trusted friend interrupted her dinner to ask her to come below deck to meet someone.
After stepping into a private cabin, she writes that she came face to face with a 'famous thirtysomething British singer–songwriter' who was shirtless in his bed, with the sheets covering his lower body.
'"Oh my God," I thought. "Is he naked under there?"' Panettiere wrote.
She adds that her friend then whispered, 'I want you to get in bed with him,' then left her and the unnamed man alone in his cabin.
Panettiere writes that she did as she was told at first but her mind and body soon became disconnected.
'My body no longer felt like my own,' she wrote.
According to the memoir, Panettiere added that her experience as a child actor, who was constantly being 'managed' by adults, had instilled in her a sense of blind trust in others, even when her instincts suggested that was unwise.
'As soon as the door clicked closed, my survival instinct kicked in,' she continues.
Since Panettiere's tragic death last week, the 2009 photos have sparked wild internet rumours that Blunt is the unnamed musician from the late actress's May memoir
Panettiere claims that she told the famous anonymous man, 'Look... I don't know what she said to you, but this is not going to happen.'
Then, she ran out of the room and back to her cabin, where she booked a hotel on the mainland for safer accommodations and prepared to disembark.
Panettiere, who says the incident made her feel as if she had been betrayed by her friend, describes it as feeling as if she had been 'kicked in the face'.
'She’d confided in me, pampered me and treated me like her best friend – then turned around and treated me like a call girl,' Panettiere alleges.
Panettiere was found dead of a suspected overdose on August 16 at an Airbnb in Greenville, South Carolina, where she had traveled with on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson, a native of the state.
Hickerson and his brother, Zach, were both at the scene when Panettiere was pronounced dead.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has joined the probe into the actress's death.