Hayden Panettiere has spoken for the first time about her split from boyfriend Stephen Coletti, revealing she just wanted some time alone. The 18-year-old beauty ended her one-year relationship with the Laguna Beach star last September – insisting the pair had parted on amicable terms.

And Panettiere, who is now dating her Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia, admits she desperately needed her own space.

She tells magazine Seventeen, “I just knew I wanted to breathe. I wanted to be single at the time. It just hit me like a ton of bricks – this is the time I need to be with myself.”

And she admits she’s not an easy girlfriend: “It takes such a secure person to be with someone like me; it takes so much confidence, it takes so much trust.”