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Courtney Stodden has revealed that she was the “main breadwinner” of her marriage when she was just 16 years old, and denounced child marriage as “America’s dirty little secret”.
Stodden, who spoke about her marriage to actor Doug Hutchison on the Lifetime show “Torn From the Headlines,” revealed that her role in the marriage quickly “kind of changed” as she found herself making money for a man older than her father.
“It was a lot to process to make sense of everything that was happening to me right now. When I first stepped into the spotlight as a little girl, my brain was not yet developed, and I had some idea of what my life was going to be like. I thought I knew everything. I mean, what kid doesn’t know at 16 years old?” Stodden explained to FOX News Digital. “Then things started to escalate quickly and my role in the marriage started to change quickly so I became the breadwinner.”
Courtney Stodden and Doug Hutchison married in 2011. (JB Lacroix/Wire Image)
“People have this misconception that I married for money as a child. They want to blame it as a victim, but that’s insane,” she added. “Looking back, I was a kid making money for a man older than my father, and there were a lot of things I couldn’t talk about. So when I realized that, I couldn’t talk about it and I bottled it up. And , which just led to a lot of self-destructive habits that I kept to myself. Now, now, I’m 31 years old. And my brain is actually starting to understand what happened to me. And it was a pretty hard pill to swallow. Swallow.
“There’s clearly a problem in America. We think of child marriage as something overseas or foreign, but actually America’s dirty little secret, in my opinion, is a loophole in the justice system that allows pedophiles to marry children.”
Courtney Stodden denounced child marriage as “America’s dirty little secret” in an interview with FOX News Digital. (Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images)
Stodden famously married Hutchison at the age of 16, when he was 51 years old.
“There is clearly a problem in America,” she stressed. “We think of child marriage like it’s a foreign thing, but America’s dirty little secret, in my opinion, is a loophole in the justice system that allows pedophiles to marry children.”
“And the scariest part of this whole thing is that I’m not alone,” Stodden added. “A lot of people contact me and tell me horror stories about when they were child brides.”
Doug Hutchison recalls marriage to teenage bride Courtney: ‘I destroyed my career for love’
A representative for Mr. Hutchison did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News.
Hutchison and Stodden separated and reconciled many times during their relationship. Eventually, Stodden filed for divorce in 2018, and the couple finalized their divorce in 2020.
Stodden was heavily criticized for his marriage to Hutchison, due to their 35-year age difference. She has dealt with intense scrutiny and public shaming for years. Ms Stodden explained that she had “painted a portrait” of her younger self to protect her mental health.
“I created something, but I feel like at the time I was using my fashion as a rebellion. And that was kind of my way of rebelling and acting out,” she explained. “So when people criticized me, they criticized the child more than me, the abuser, and I kind of brushed it off and fought back in my own way.”
“And to me, they weren’t talking about me,” Stodden added. “They were talking about the characters that I had created, and I think in some ways that saved me as a kid in a lot of ways.”
Courtney Stodden filed for divorce from Doug Hutchison in 2018. (Tommaso Body/Wire Image)
Ms. Stodden admitted that she ended up “becoming that caricature” of herself.
“Because as I grew up, I was encouraged to embrace it,” she explained. “And I ended up becoming the Courtney Stodden character. So I lost myself quite a bit in the process.”
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Stodden revisited her experience of getting married at age 16 on the Lifetime show Pulled from the Headlines episode “I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story.” The episode first aired on September 27, with Stodden serving as producer and narrator.
Ms. Stodden helped shape the episode by sharing her story, but she realized it reopened wounds in her relationship with her father.
“I think a lot of it stems from my relationship with my father,” she explained. “Because I got married at 16 and my parents believed that my dad was a good person. And really, mentally, not having him was a huge leap for this whole thing. So I think reopening that wound was the hardest thing for me.”
Courtney Stodden produced and narrated the “ripped from the headlines” episode of the Lifetime show, “I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story.” (Getty Images)
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Jared Safia and Courtney Stodden married in 2024. (Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images)
Stodden has since moved on from his past relationships. The model married television producer Jared Safier in December 2024. According to US Weekly, the couple held an impromptu ceremony in front of 20 people. Mr Stodden explained that he had “great hopes” for marrying Safia.
“He taught me a new way to love, like a fresh start,” she told Fox News Digital. “He’s really been a very important person in my life, and I’ve somehow gained a lot of trust, if not complete trust. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust fully again. But he’s earned a lot of my trust, and I feel safe with him.”
“For me, it’s not easy to feel safe with anyone, especially with a man, so it’s a daily occurrence. I mean, he’s a strong guy. I would never be with someone who isn’t strong. But he just taught me a new way of loving. He showed me what healthy love looks like.”
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