Courtney Stodden is fighting for more than an apology
Courtney Stodden is fighting for something bigger than Jason Alexander’s apology: California’s AB 1267, a bill that would ban child marriage by making 18 the minimum legal wedding age. Alexander apologized Wednesday for a 2012 Funny or Die sketch filmed when Stodden was 17; she now urges him to support the bill and Unchained at Last.
Key Takeaways
- Jason Alexander apologized Wednesday for a 2012 Funny or Die sketch with then-17-year-old Courtney Stodden.
- Stodden welcomed the apology but says accountability should include backing AB 1267 and Unchained at Last.
- California currently has no minimum marriage age; Stodden says only Mississippi and New Mexico also allow that.
- She plans another California State Capitol visit next month with Unchained at Last survivors.
What did Jason Alexander apologize for?
It took fourteen and a half years, but the “Seinfeld” actor issued a public apology to Stodden on Wednesday. According to Variety, the pair filmed a “comedy” sketch in which Alexander, then 52, fondled 17-year-old Stodden’s breasts with a cell phone and said that when she turned 18, he would take her behind the couch and have his way with her.
“Looking back at the comedy sketch in which Ms. Stodden and I participated in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it,” Alexander said in a statement to Variety. “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
The sketch, a “Dr. Phil” parody called “The Donny Clay Show,” debuted in January 2012 on Funny or Die and YouTube and has since been taken down. Alexander also co-wrote it. Stodden appeared alongside Doug Hutchison, who married her in 2011 when he was 51 and she was 16. She is now 31 and divorced from Hutchison. Alexander apologized after her Instagram post about feeling “alone” and exploited while making the video. For more TV headlines, see our Streaming & TV Alerts hub.
Why is Courtney Stodden fighting for AB 1267?
Stodden told Variety she was pleasantly surprised Alexander took responsibility, calling an apology “the first step in change.” She also asked him to go further: support AB 1267 in California or donate to Unchained at Last, the only U.S. nonprofit dedicated to ending child marriage.
“It’s really frightening that there’s no minimum age for someone to get married in California,” Stodden said, noting Mississippi and New Mexico as the only other states that allow the same. She said she only later grasped how foul the sketch was while watching Alexander’s assault scene in “Pretty Woman,” adding she did not know he would be “feeling me up on set” and that she was “very manipulated.”
“This isn’t about revisiting my past but changing the experiences for minors going forward so they don’t have to experience what I had to experience,” she said.
What happens next in her advocacy fight?
Stodden and other Unchained at Last survivors will return to the California State Capitol next month to urge lawmakers to end child marriage. She is also finishing a memoir and may join a docuseries on that fight. She has received a public apology from Chrissy Teigen for cyberbullying, but not from Dr. Drew Pinsky, who performed an ultrasound on her breasts on “Lifechangers” when she was 16.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want to be remembered for what happened to me,” Stodden said. “I want to be remembered for helping make sure that this doesn’t happen again to another child.”