When the world found out teenage Courtney Stodden was playing arm candy to a man three times their age, they were labeled everything from a ‘child bride’ to a ‘wh**e’.
In 2011, the former child model – who is now non-binary and uses they/them pronouns – married The Green Mile star, Doug Hutchison, in a Las Vegas chapel when they were 16 and he was 51; with their parents’ mandatory consent.
Relentless media scrutiny enwrapped the couple and some shocked onlookers branded the actor a ‘paedophile’, sending both death threats. It lasted nine years.
Fourteen years on, Courtney, now aged 31, is happily married to Emmy-winning TV producer Jared Safier, 41 – and has vowed to ‘take down’ their ‘predator’ ex-husband, who they say ‘groomed’ and ‘abused’ them when they were a ‘minor’.
An intimate ceremony in Palm Springs saw Courtney walk down the aisle in a vintage wedding dress in front of 20 close friends and family – a far cry from their scandal-riddled nuptials more than a decade earlier.
In 2025 it appears Courtney is willing to speak on their past more than ever, while simultaneously standing up for ‘survivors’ of grooming.
Their TikTok and Instagram pages are splattered with video diaries lambasting strangers who painted them as a ‘villain’ in the story, despite the fact they were just 16 at the time of the wedding.
They also recently revealed that online bullying – including what they say was a trolling crusade by Chrissy Teigen in 2011 – almost resulted in them writing a ‘suicide letter’ – but they have since found the strength to hit back at the ‘crazy’ criticism.
In 2011, Courtney Stodden married The Green Mile star, Doug Hutchison, in a Las Vegas chapel when they were 16 and he was 51
Courtney, now aged 30, has vowed in a TikTok video to ‘take down’ their ‘predator’ ex-husband, who they say ‘groomed’ and ‘abused’ them when they were a ‘minor’
And with the release of Hulu’s new TV special, Confessions of a Child Bride, it is clear that Courtney has a resounding message for their ex – and all ‘predators’.
Here, FEMAIL takes a look at Courtney Stodden’s journey from paparazzi fodder to advocate for abuse survivors as she settles into a very different type of marriage in California…
2011: Courtney Stodden marries Doug Hutchison
Fourteen years ago, Courtney, then 16, signed up for an internet acting workshop taught by famed actor Doug Hutchison.
A seasoned 51-year-old performer, his credentials at the time included roles in blockbusters like A Time To Kill, Batman & Robin and the 1996 Tom Hanks smash, The Green Mile.
After signing up for the tutorials, the pair began chatting online, and within a few months their communications became romantic; all the while their mother Krista was aware of the relationship.
Fourteen years after their ‘child marriage’, Courtney – who came out as non-binary in 2021 – is happily married to Emmy-winning TV producer Jared Safier, 41 (pictured)
Courtney attempted to move on from their ‘child marriage’ to Doug Hutchison and became engaged to then-boyfriend Chris Sheng (Pictured: Courtney flaunts their engagement ring on Instagram in 2021)
The couple were reportedly head over in heels in love and decided to marry within the space of months.
With Courtney’s parents’ blessing, they wed in Las Vegas in May 2011 despite the 35-year age gap.
In an exclusive statement to E! News a month later, they acknowledged the age difference was ‘extremely controversial’ but it didn’t matter because true love was ‘ageless’.
‘We’re very much in love’ they said. ‘And want to get the message out there that true love can be ageless’.
On the Call Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper in 2022, Courtney was asked why they chose to wed Doug instead of just dating, to which they replied they were a virgin at the time and ‘grew up in a really Christian family’.
The Hutchisons face backlash – and split
The bizarre coupling made national headlines, and the previously relatively unknown Courtney became an overnight sensation.
They faced widespread media scrutiny and were labeled everything from a ‘child bride’ to a ‘wh**e’ for marrying a man 35 years their senior.
Doug himself later said that he shot his career ‘in the head for love’ and blamed the decision to marry the teen bride for causing his Hollywood peers to shun him.
When the world found out a 16-year-old Courtney Stodden was playing arm candy to a man three times their age, they were labeled everything from a ‘child bride’ to a ‘wh**e’ (The ex-couple are pictured together in 2013)
Relentless media scrutiny enwrapped the couple and shocked onlookers spurted the vilest names, including branding Doug Hutchison a ‘pedophile’ (Pictured in 2013)
Speaking to Fox News in in 2020, he said he was blacklisted and that the marriage cost him his family and friends.
‘She was 16 and I was 50, so I knew our union was going to turn heads, but I didn’t realise the impact it would truly have,’ he revealed.
‘I didn’t realise that in marrying Courtney, my manager would drop me, my agent would drop me. I was blacklisted. I was blackballed from casting directors’.
Doug said he also received death threats and was disowned by his family.
Perhaps making matters worse was the controversy that ensued, with the pair making-up and breaking up throughout the embattled union.
In 2013, Courtney told E! News that their ‘age’ caused the split as many people were ‘against’ the relationship.
Covered in glitter with a mane of long hair and heavy make-up, Courtney looked older than their 19 years as they insisted the break-up wasn’t a ‘stunt’.
‘I don’t understand why we would do that right now, with how many people were against us. This isn’t a stunt,’ said Courtney.
The pair subsequently got back together, but after suffering a miscarriage in July 2016, they ultimately settled on a final separation in September 2017.
A stint on reality show Couple’s Therapy didn’t help things and by 2020 their divorce was officially finalised.
According to Courtney, the marriage should’ve ended sooner but the then 25-year-old said they had been filling out the document incorrectly.
Courtney claims her ex is a ‘predator’
Despite the impact on Doug’s professional life, he once publicly claimed that he did not regret the relationship.
The same can’t be said for Courtney however, who immediately denounced the age-gap marriage and went on to launch a sustained public attack against their former lover.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.
In 2020, Courtney told Daily Mail TV that they were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the end of their ‘toxic’ marriage to Doug Hutchison
Courtney said they felt ‘absolutely taken advantage of’ and ‘groomed’ during the nearly 10-year marriage (The then-Hutchisons pose together in 2015)
People with PTSD often suffer nightmares and flashbacks to the traumatic event and can experience insomnia and an inability to concentrate.
By now the reality star had appeared on various entertainment shows in both the UK and the US including Celebrity Big Brother, Reality Ex-Wives and Celebs Go Dating.
They also fronted their own TV series in 2020 on the Fashion News Lifestyle Network (FNL) to ‘discover a new version of themselves’ said the platform’s website.
But as their fame soared, so did their public attacks on Doug, and they told the Daily Mail they endured hell with the actor which drove them to the verge of suicide.
The same year they shared an emotional post to Instagram claiming that they felt ‘absolutely taken advantage of’ and that they were ‘groomed’ during the nearly 10-year marriage.
With an an amorous throwback photo of Doug kissing their cheek, they wrote: ‘I’ve been scared to even speak up about feeling groomed or being verbally abused during the almost 10 year marriage.
‘I was a child and he was 50 when we married, but I’m a woman now and it’s time for me to put my big girl pants on and speak on this matter.
‘I’ve felt completely trapped, manipulated and at times abandoned by adults growing up in such an environment – it became a lonely and dark place. Stay tuned for my book.’
Today, Courtney’s TikTok page is splattered with video diaries lambasting strangers who they say painted a ‘minor’ as the ‘villain’ during their marriage to Doug
After leaving Doug, Courtney claimed they would ‘always love’ the Green Mile actor, but added he had made them feel ‘belittled and confused’ during the relationship.
Two years later during an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, they referred to Doug as a ‘predator’.
Recalling the wedding, she said: ‘I felt like I didn’t have any control over my own body, my own finances. I couldn’t sign any legal documents in that marriage. I couldn’t sign off on my own marriage, I was just so controlled’.
Courtney also likened the marriage to a ‘trauma bond’ and called their ex-husband a ‘paedophile’.
‘But then I think that there’s this trauma bond that happens when you’re that age, right? I don’t want to say I had Stockholm Syndrome, but there’s this grooming. It’s the mental effects of grooming, where I didn’t want to believe.
Since the end of their marriage, Courtney has spoken out against ‘minors’ marrying adult men much older than them (Pictured: Courtney in Los Angeles in 2024)
‘My pedophile husband is the one who decided to sign me up for things because he needed the money. Another misconception is people thought I was a gold digger, [that] I married him for money’ they said.
‘I was not a child bride. I was a child who was exploited… I think that is something people should think about’.
Courtney also recalled how they were ‘petrified’ to get undressed in front of Hutchison for the first time because they feared he would be put off by their teenage body.
They said they had worn a heavily padded bra with cutlets on their wedding day to make their breasts look bigger.
‘I wanted to fashion myself after Pamela Anderson. That was the like ultimate woman,’ they told Yahoo Life. ‘I think that was the image that was in my head that I needed to portray to overcome my own insecurities’.
‘I got a breast augmentation because I had the body of a child,’ they continued.
‘But my personal situation behind closed doors and then, obviously, my career at the time really called for this overtly sexual image that I couldn’t necessarily completely fulfill’.
They claimed Hutchison was against the surgery, saying: ‘He told me that I was gonna be grotesque after I got my breasts done’.
Courtney repeated the allegations of grooming during an appearance on ABC Nightline in March, to which their ex responded: ‘These false malicious and egregious allegations are sadly and assumedly fuelled by Courtney Stodden’s insatiable and desperate desire to remain in the entertainment media limelight at all costs.
‘Ms Stodden has a history of unfortunate deception and/or exaggerations to depict herself as a ‘victim’ using unsubstantiated and provocative terms incautiously, like ‘grooming’, ‘abusive’ and ‘predatory’.
‘If you take the time to explore an unbiased deep-dive into Ms Stodden’s deceptive and narcissistic nature you would uncover a plethora of manipulative dishonesty.’
Courtney’s plans to ‘take down’ Doug in 2025
At some point after 2022, it appeared Courtney sidestepped the limelight.
However things ramped up again this year, with the star posting ‘car therapy’ videos once again detailing their experience with Hutchison.
Courtney has re-launched the campaign with renewed vigor, vowing to continue a plot to ‘take down’ Doug.
Five years ago Courtney told Daily Mail TV about their plans to lift the lid on the living hell they allegedly endured while married to the actor.
‘I am working on a book called Blond and Blue, and I will tell my true story from when I was a kid and what lead me into such a crazy life,’ they explained.
They added how they turned to drugs to cope with their now ex and had suffered from PTSD since their split.
Courtney said if anyone failed to have sympathy for their words, then ‘f**k them’, and said writing her memoir has been like ‘therapy’.
In 2025 Courtney took to TikTok to say it was ‘kind of crazy’ that people made her into the ‘villain’ at the time despite their impressionable age.
In 2021, Courtney was engaged to their-then boyfriend Chris Sheng (pictured). However, this was called off
‘I find it kind of crazy that I was a minor yet I was the one who was the villain – not like the predators or anyone who [sexually assaulted] me or anything like that’.
They then said that in history villains ‘were the ones who were loved the most’ and were initially ‘victims’ before becoming villains.
Their plans are also enacted in a brand new documentary titled, Confessions Of A Child Bride: Courtney Stodden’s Story.
According to a press statement released to IMDB, the show aims to explore the ‘tabloid tornado’ of Courtney and Doug’s marriage, with the star ‘revisiting that chapter of her (their) life with a decidedly different perspective’.
In a snippet of the series shared to Instagram, Courtney could be seen in a cream turtleneck sporting black eyeliner and a full face of make-up.
Speaking directly to the camera, they explained: ‘When you’re underage you’re like “oh this is my first love, this is everything – this is perfect”…
‘I was a child who was exploited.’
Courtney publicly shows support for ‘abuse’ survivors
Since the end of their marriage to Doug, Courtney has spoken out against ‘minors’ marrying adult men much older than them.
While reflecting on their past union, they warned minors to ‘wait a respectable amount of time’ before walking down the aisle.
In a post shared to Instagram in 2020, they penned: ‘It’s not right… even if the parent signs off. Wait a respectable amount of time before marrying. Children aren’t on your level’.
And speaking directly to Doug, they added: ‘But please don’t ever do this to another minor again.’
As the years went on Courtney took on the role of advocate, publicly toting facts about ‘child marriages’, a topic they have held close to their heart since the split from Doug.
Courtney shared details about just how close they came to suicide in the wake of what she called a brutal social media campaign involving star Chrissy Teigen (Courtney pictured in a trailer for the ABC News documentary IMPACT x Nightline: Confessions of a Child Bride
Among the X, formerly Twitter, posts highlighted was one from 2012, in which the wife of John Legend, 39, wrote ‘I hate you’ in response to one of Courtney’s posts (Chrissy Teigen seen in 2025)
Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast in 2022, they said: ‘It happens to so many other children in the USA’.
‘About 300,000 children, underage children, were married to adults between the years of 2000 and 2018, and 86 per cent of those children are girls.
‘And it’s in this country. We think of child brides as some foreign situation, but it is so prevalent in the USA right now, and it’s terrifying. And some are as young as 10 years old’.
This year Courtney took to their Instagram page to expose an alleged grooming incident by Doug. The reality star used the opportunity to tell ‘brave survivors’ they had their support.
Perhaps Courtney has vowed to show support for ‘victims’ following her own bout of public scrutiny.
In a trailer for the ABC News documentary IMPACT x Nightline: Confessions of a Child Bride, they said they were driven to the point of writing a suicide note following an onslaught of online abuse brought on by their marriage to Doug Hutchison.
Courtney began dating Emmy-winning TV producer, Jared Safier, in summer 2023 after meeting on the set of a film project and they were engaged by June 2024. (The couple seen in Los Angeles in 2024)
Courtney said they were ‘excited’ to be married again and gushed that their now-husband Jared ‘lights up’ their life (The pair share a kiss on Instagram)
Although they faced a wave of harassment by numerous accounts, both famous and not, they said it was Chrissy Tiegen’s post that particularly stuck out, including some in which she appeared to call for Courtney to die.
Courtney has previously called out Chrissy’s vicious posts, prompting the 39-year-old model to apologize privately and publicly for the posts in 2021.
Among the X, formerly Twitter, posts highlighted was one from 2012, in which the wife of John Legend, 39, wrote: ‘I hate you’ in response to one of Courtney’s posts.
An even more shocking post came from the star a few months earlier in 2011, when she wrote: ‘@CourtneyStodden my Friday fantasy: you. dirt nap. mmmmmm baby.’
‘And I know she’s saying it was from alcohol, or whatever she’s saying it was from…’ said Courtney – apparently referring to Chrissy’s announcement in 2022 that she had quit drinking, though she doesn’t appear to have ever tied alcohol to her social media posts.
‘Saying this to a child when you’re the queen of Twitter… it was so much.’
‘I did actually almost succeed at committing suicide because of…’ Courtney began, before changing course. ‘That was a huge part of it,’ she added.
‘I had a suicide letter written. I remember my last thought was: ‘Maybe I don’t deserve to be here when people that high up are telling me I don’t deserve to be.’
When the old tweets resurfaced in 2021 Teigen publicly apologised for the things she had said to Stodden in the past, admitting she had been an ‘insecure, attention seeking troll’ earlier in her career.
She added: ‘I am ashamed and completely embarrassed at my behavior but that is nothing compared to how I made Courtney feel.’
Courtney ties the knot again in 2025
More than a decade after their ‘child bride’ scandal in 2024, Courtney, at age 29, became a wife their ‘best friend’.
The model tied the knot with Jared Safier, 41, in a ‘last-minute’ ceremony at Casa de Monte Vista in Palm Springs in December 2024, revealed Us Weekly.
It was an intimate affair with just 20 guests in attendance.
Speaking on their marriage to Jared, Courtney recently said: ‘So this is so important to me, to just finally have my choice of getting married. I don’t have to have a parent sign off on this one… This is completely my decision’ (Courtney pictured in 2025)
Confessions of a Child Bride aims to explore the ‘tabloid tornado’ of Courtney and Doug’s marriage, with the star ‘revisiting that chapter of her (their) life with a decidedly different perspective’
Courtney walked down the aisle in a vintage wedding dress with a plunging neckline and modest train that cost $60,000. They wore a long tulle veil with elegant lace trim.
For a sentimental touch, their father Alex Stodden gave them the wedding ring he gave their mother Krista Keller when they got married. Alex and Krista are no longer together.
Courtney began dating the Emmy-winning TV producer in summer 2023 after meeting on the set of a film project and they were engaged by June 2024.
They told Us Weekly: ‘We planned on getting married, and we didn’t have a date. We just kind of looked at each other, and we’re the same kind of crazy. We just looked at each other and we’re just like, “This is the perfect time to do it”‘.
Courtney said they were ‘excited’ to be married again and gushed that Jared ‘lights up’ their life.
Courtney also reflected on the first time they met Jared and his reaction when they warned him not to ‘fall in love’ with them.
‘He looked at me like I was crazy, and he goes, “What? Don’t fall in love with me at a business meeting?!” But I just felt like, if this guy falls in love with me, I’m kind of, you know, I’m done for because I just felt this calling toward him.
‘And our first kiss, it almost felt like it was our 80th kiss, the first kiss for me’ they recalled.
Speaking on their former ‘child marriage’ to ex-husband Doug, Courtney added: ‘I think the marriage that I went through in Vegas – it was so fast and I couldn’t process it because I was 16.
‘So this is so important to me, to just finally have my choice of getting married. I don’t have to have a parent sign off on this one… This is completely my decision’.
Courtney and Jared’s wedding came six months after he proposed to them with a 5-carat, radiant-cut VVS ring at the famous Beverly Wilshire Hotel, reported TMZ.
Jared is an industry veteran who has produced more than 80 films under his production company Safier Entertainment.
He has also found success in the TV world as a four-time Emmy Award winner. In 2021, Courtney was engaged to their-then boyfriend Chris Sheng; the pair were already betrothed when they announced the news via social media.
When they split in July 2023, it became headline news, with Courtney’s rep telling Page Six at the time: ‘Courtney is now single… They are looking forward to telling their story’.
One year later, Courtney shocked fans by flushing the $500,000 diamond engagement ring he gave them down their apartment toilet. Days later, they went public with the news of Jared’s engagement.
This marks Courtney’s second engagement.
