Courtney Stodden has opened up further on the controversial 2012 sketch on Funny Or Die.
Courtney Stodden felt “very manipulated” by her controversial Funny or Die sketch.
The 31-year-old star has recalled the moment she realised her sketch, which was filmed when she was just 17 alongside her then-husband Doug Hutchison, was inspired by a scene from Pretty Woman.
Reflecting on when she saw the 1990 movie, she told Variety: “I was in shock.
“It felt very close to home, and like he pulled from Pretty Woman and thought it would be funny to recreate that with a child.
“I didn’t know he was going to be feeling me up on set.”
The clip, filmed in 2012, featured Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander, 66, alongside Courtney and her then husband Doug Hutchison, also now 66.
She added: “I was very manipulated. Even if I didn’t look like a child, or what a ‘victim’ should look like, there was a child buried under there.
“I really just trusted the adults around me, and this is the effect of that. Looking back on it, it’s really damaging.
“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.”
Earlier this week, Courtney posted a detailed account of her experience on Instagram, describing the filming and its aftermath, noting that Jason was a writer as well as starring on it.
Reflecting on the experience, Courtney said: “As an adult, that fact has become harder – not easier – for me to understand. I was a minor. I didn’t have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults. The paycheck went to Doug.”
She added: “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.”
Courtney and Doug married in 2011 when she was 16 and he was 51, a relationship that drew widespread media attention at the time.
They separated in 2017, with Courtney filing for divorce in 2018, before the split was finalised in 2020. She is now married to producer Jared Safier.
In a statement, Jason said: “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.”
He added: “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
In her own statement, Courtney insisted she would have preferred a private apology and “meaningful action”.
She said: “I appreciate Jason Alexander’s public apology.
“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.
“If he truly regrets what happened, I’d invite him to support Unchained at Last and the fight to end child marriage through AB 1267. That’s how we turn accountability into lasting change.”
Courtney Stodden felt ‘manipulated’ by controversial Funny or Die skit
