Courtney Stodden turns 26, reflects on marriage to Doug Hutchison: 'No one stepped in and said this wasn’t okay'
On the eve of her 26th birthday, Courtney Stodden shared personal insights about her former marriage to actor Doug Hutchison.
The television personality looked back on her controversial personal life and career by writing on Instagram Friday, “Ten years ago, I turned 16. Nothing could have prepared me for what was around the corner. I had a child’s mind, a teenager’s body, and I was a virgin. However, it appeared to everyone around me that I was a woman who was grown and able to make my own choices. According to many, I was ‘mature’ enough to date men my father’s age (or older), and eventually marry one.”
In 2011, Stodden, then 16, married The Green Mile star, then 51. The two met via email when Stodden reached out about an acting workshop Hutchison was hosting in Los Angeles. The former couple emailed and spoke on the phone for four months and, as Hutchison told ABC News, when he learned she was 16, his "world turned upside down…. It didn't make me want to walk away, but it definitely was a struggle inside my heart … because I had already started falling for her."
With the consent of Stodden’s mother Krista and father Alex (who is four years younger than Hutchison), the couple married in Las Vegas, Nevada. Currently, only three states prohibit child marriage (involving a person under the age of 18); the rest allow it with exceptions such as parental permission.
"I was a virgin," Stodden told ABC News. "I knew that if I kept that, I would really be blessed with a beautiful gift. And God did. He blessed me with my soulmate. So I'm really thankful for that." In March, after multiple break ups and makeups, the Celebrity Big Brother star posted a wedding photo on Instagram announcing, “Today I am officially divorced, I look back at this picture and feel absolutely taken advantage of.”
Related: Courtney Stodden says she was groomed as a 'child bride' at 16
In her Friday post, Stodden wrote, “Looking back, I now see how desperately I craved my father’s attention.” And of Hutchison, she added, “I gave him my all — my body, my mind, my heart, my soul. No one stopped me. No one stepped in and said this wasn’t okay. Instead, after achieving a kind of fame I wasn’t prepared for, the world became my jury.”
Stodden was constantly talked about in the press and slammed for her appearance and persona. “I hid myself beneath a blonde mask, and eventually I lost my complete identity,” she wrote. “I was the victim of sexual assault, abuse and rape.”
In February, Hutchison told Fox News that while he didn’t regret marrying Stodden, he takes “full responsibility” for the relationship. “She was 16 and I was 50, so I knew our union was going to turn heads, but I didn’t realize the impact it would truly have. I didn’t realize that in marrying Courtney, my manager would drop me, my agent would drop me. I was blacklisted. I was blackballed from casting directors. I shot my career in the head for love.” He said the couple received death threats and hate mail adding, “We thought, “We’re in love — deal with it. If you don’t like, that’s your prerogative, but we’re in love.”
Since moving on from Hutchison, Stodden was briefly connected to Beverly Hills, 90210 star Brian Austin Green, 47, after his May split from actress Megan Fox. In July, Stodden, who is also a singer, released a song called “Side Effects” on SoundCloud, inspired by her “entanglement” with Green. The fling ended, she told the outlet, because "Brian wanted me to remain his little secret.”
A few weeks ago, Green opened up about his relationship with Stodden on Hollywood Raw podcast, explaining that he had “no idea” of her past. When he learned more about her, he had “that moment of, ‘Oh sh**. What have I done?!’”
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