Where is Courtney Stodden now? All about the former tabloid fixture and subject of Lifetime's “Child Bride”
- - Where is Courtney Stodden now? All about the former tabloid fixture and subject of Lifetime's “Child Bride”
Randall ColburnSeptember 28, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty
Doug Hutchison and Courtney StoddenKey Points -
Courtney Stodden rose to fame as a tabloid fixture and reality TV star after marrying 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison at age 16.
The couple divorced in 2020, and she's since accused him of grooming her.
Stodden is the subject of a new Lifetime movie, I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story.
Courtney Stodden was just 16 years old when she became a tabloid fixture after marrying a much, much older man in 2011.
In the 15 years since she first made headlines, Stodden has run the 21st-century media gauntlet, capitalizing on her tabloid fame with pop aspirations, appearances on numerous reality TV shows, a few acting roles, and even a solo sex tape.
Now, she's the subject of a new Lifetime movie, I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story. The TV movie, which chronicles Stodden's marriage to 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison, is narrated by Stodden and, according to Lifetime, told through her perspective.
In light of the new film, you might be curious where Courtney Stodden is now. Let's dig in below.
Who is Courtney Stodden?
Stodden was raised in Ocean Shores, Wash., by parents Alex and Krista. As a child, she competed in beauty pageants, including Miss Teen Washington USA, per ABC News.
Stodden rose to fame in 2011 after marrying Hutchison, an actor known for his roles in The Green Mile (1999) and Lost (2007–2009), when she was 16 and he was 51. A bizarre and uncomfortable interview with ABC News, conducted roughly a month after the wedding, helped to cultivate the public's fascination with the couple.
Stodden was attempting to forge a career as a pop star around this time, having already released singles such as "Car Candy" and "Don't Put It On Me" prior to their marriage.
She found more success, however, on reality TV. Stodden and Hutchison starred on season 2 of VH1's Couples Therapy (2012), and she appeared solo on the British iteration of Celebrity Big Brother (2013). She later appeared on reality series like Reality Ex-Wives (2015), The Mother/Daughter Experiment (2016), and Courtney (2020), an FNL Network show said to be about her "day-to-day challenges."
Stodden's career features other strange and intriguing endeavors, including a cameo in a 50 Cent video, a role in Glenn Danzig's 2019 film Verotika, a solo sex tape released via Vivid Entertainment, and an OnlyFans account, not to mention advocacy for the animal rights organization PETA.
How did Courtney Stodden and Doug Hutchison meet?
Stodden met Hutchison when her parents signed her up for private acting lessons with the actor, per ABC News. The pair reportedly spoke online and over the phone for six months before the twice-divorced Hutchison traveled to Stodden's Washington hometown to meet her in person for the first time and propose marriage.
Despite the fact that Stodden was underage, her parents approved of the union. Krista Stodden signed over consent to her daughter, and Stodden and Hutchison were wed in Las Vegas, where it was legal.
“Every father can only pray to have such a man behind their daughter,” her father, Alex Stodden, told RadarOnline.com following the wedding.
“We’re aware that our vast age difference is extremely controversial, but we’re very much in love and want to get the message out there that true love can be ageless," Hutchison told E! News at the time.
Is Courtney Stodden still married to Doug Hutchison?
No. Stodden and Hutchison officially divorced in March 2020.
In an Instagram post announcing the divorce on March 3, 2020, Stodden 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."
She added, "And to Doug... I’ll always love you; yet I’ll always be angry... I wish you well. But please don’t ever do this to another minor again. It’s not right... even if the parent signs off."
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Stodden opened up about the divorce in a 2021 interview with the Daily Beast, in which the then-26-year-old claimed that Hutchison "groomed" her.
"I didn’t know what [grooming] meant. But as I grew into a woman, I started realizing what happened to me," she said. "I didn’t wake up to it until he ended up leaving to Michigan while I stayed in West Hollywood. I was over the relationship and wanted to move on, but when he left, I was terrified to be on my own. I didn’t know how to be on my own. I still don’t have a license. I depended so much on him and he knew that, so when he left it was almost a manipulative way of going, 'OK, let’s see if you can survive without me here.' ... It took me a really, really long time to understand what happened to me, and I’m still going through the repercussions of being groomed."
In that same interview, she addressed her parents' support of the marriage and how they, too, were charmed by Hutchison. "[When] Doug flew in to Washington to meet me and my family in person, he was lovely. He was so charming and so charismatic, and for this man to be so charismatic to give this protective dad his consent to marry his daughter, at the time I was kind of confused about it. I thought, 'Oh, my dad gave his consent. He must be a great guy.' They thought I was going to be saved and protected, and that it was this big love story. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth."
Hutchison responded to Stodden's allegations in a statement shared with multiple news outlets. "These false malicious and egregious allegations are sadly and assumedly fueled by Courtney Stodden's insatiable and desperate desire to remain in the entertainment media limelight at all costs," it reads.
The statement continued, "Ms. Stodden has a history of unfortunate deception and/or exaggerations to depict herself as a 'victim,' using unsubstantiated and provocative terms like 'grooming,' 'abusive,' and 'predatory.' If you take the time to explore and unbiased deep dive into Ms. Stodden's deceptive and narcissistic nature — you would uncover a plethora of manipulative dishonesty."
Where is Courtney Stodden now?
Following her divorce from Hutchison, Stodden came out as non-binary and began using she/they pronouns.
She also admitted to struggling with a dependency on Xanax and alcohol, though she maintains that she was sober during the now-infamous ABC News interview following her wedding.
"I didn’t drink then or had ever taken a pill. Later on, I developed a Xanax and alcohol dependency. But I was sober. I was just drunk on fear and being taken advantage of in that interview," she told the Daily Beast.
Stodden has also discussed struggling with suicidal thoughts amid aggressive bullying both online and from the media. In 2021, she made headlines after calling out model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen for past Twitter posts in which she mocked Stodden and told her to kill herself.
Teigen later apologized. "I have tried to connect with Courtney privately but since I publicly fueled all of this, I want to also publicly apologize. I'm so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now, knowing how deeply sorry I am," she said in a statement, per ABC News.
In 2021, Stodden got engaged to entrepreneur Chris Sheng, though they split in July 2023. The following month, she began dating filmmaker and producer Jared Safier. They married in December 2024 and are still together. Along with Stodden, Safier is a producer on Lifetime's I Was a Child Bride.
These days, Stodden, now 31, regularly advocates for animal rights and vegetarianism with PETA.
She also continues to publicly allege that she was groomed by Hutchison. In a recent interview with Inside Edition to promote the Lifetime film, Stodden opened up about the persona she perpetuated throughout the 2010s. "The stripper shoes, the short skirts, all of that, I was told who I was. It was being encouraged by my groomer."
In an Instagram post shared in September 2025, she touched on her experience working on I Was a Child Bride. "This movie made me realize how broken I’ve been but also how strong I’ve had to be. I thought I was healed until I sat down and watched it," she wrote. "The truth is my pain doesn’t feel like it has a beginning or an end."
Where can I watch I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story?
I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story premieres on Lifetime on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. ET.
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