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Model Courtney Stodden has spent years speaking publicly about marrying at 16, and is now using that experience to campaign for a California bill that would ban child marriage without exceptions.
A renewed focus on her advocacy comes after actor Jason Alexander, best known for playing George Costanza on Seinfeld, apologized for a 2012 comedy sketch filmed when Stodden was 17, prompting her to call not only for accountability but also for support for legislation aimed at ending child marriage in the state.
Stodden, now 31, first made international headlines in 2011 after marrying The Green Mile actor Doug Hutchison. She was 16 and he was 51. Although she was a minor, the marriage was legal because her parents gave consent. The couple divorced in 2020.
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Since then, Stodden has become an outspoken advocate against child marriage in the United States, where it remains legal in 33 states under certain circumstances, including parental consent or a judicial waiver. But in California, that may soon change, following the passage of Assembly Bill 1267—a bill that seeks to ban all marriages for anyone under 18—through the California Assembly this month.
Newsweek has contacted a representative for Stodden via email for comment.
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Jason Alexander Apologizes
Attention returned to Stodden this week after she reflected on a comedy sketch published by Funny or Die in 2012, when she was 17.
In the sketch, Stodden appears as herself in a red bikini while Alexander portrays a daytime television doctor. During the segment, Alexander rubs a mobile phone on Stodden's breasts while joking that he has "full bars" in her chest but is "not getting anything" in her head. After several suggestive remarks, his character invites her to return to the show after turning 18.
Alexander was 52 when the sketch was filmed and is credited as one of its writers.
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Reflecting on the video in a statement posted Monday, Stodden said: "Looking back now, I don't see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke. People still say, 'You chose to be there.' Legally, I couldn't make those decisions for myself. That's the point. I can't change what happened to me, but I can ask myself: How did so many adults look at a minor and decide this was acceptable?
"That's exactly why I speak out today. Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn't have to become adults before realizing the law should have protected them all along."
Alexander issued a public apology on Wednesday, telling The Hollywood Reporter: "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. But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies."
Stodden welcomed the apology but said further action would have a greater impact.
"I appreciate Jason Alexander's public apology," she said. "People keep asking if he's apologized privately, and he hasn't. A private apology would be meaningful, but meaningful action would be even more powerful."
She also invited him to support AB 1267, saying "that's how we turn accountability into lasting change."
California Bill Seeks to End Child Marriage
Stodden has become one of the most visible supporters of the bill, which is authored by Assemblymembers Diane Dixon, a Republican, and Democrats Gail Pellerin, Cottie Petrie-Norris and Sharon Quirk Silva. After passing the Assembly, the bill is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
If enacted, the legislation would establish an outright minimum marriage age of 18 in California, eliminating exceptions that currently allow minors to marry.
According to 2021 U.S. Census data analyzed by the nonprofit advocacy group Unchained At Last, more than 8,000 California children, mostly girls, reported having been married within the previous year. Child marriage was legal in every U.S. state until 2018.
The United Nations classifies all marriages involving someone under 18 as forced marriage because children cannot provide full, free and informed consent.
Stodden's Marriage
Since ending her marriage in 2020, Stodden has increasingly spoken about how she views her underage marriage.
In an Instagram post on the day of her divorce, she wrote: "I've been scared to even speak up about feeling groomed or being verbally abused during the almost 10 year marriage because 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."
Stodden also said she loved her former husband and wished him well, while adding that she would "always be angry."
Hutchinson, speaking in 2020 to Fox News, said: "When it comes to my marriage with Courtney, I take full responsibility. 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."
When asked if he regretted marrying Stodden, he said: "I don’t believe in living a life of regret. I think that every choice we make, we make them for a reason.…I have absolutely no regrets in my life. Do I wish I would have handled certain aspects of my life differently or said...some things differently? Yes, like everybody else. But my marriage to Courtney is not one of them. I regret none of it. It was a beautiful and powerful journey. A bittersweet journey with Courtney."
Stodden's story became the subject of the 2025 television movie I Was a Child Bride, while she also appeared on reality television programs including Celebrity Big Brother.
More recently, she has continued urging supporters to back AB 1267 as it moves through the California Legislature.
After the bill cleared the Assembly, Stodden wrote on Instagram that "we need to keep the pressure on. i won't stop until child marriage is illegal in california. no loopholes. no exceptions. california, let's finish this."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Dave Siminoff.
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