Courtney Stodden Won't Stop Talking About Legal Underage Marriages: 'I Don't Want This to Happen to Anyone Else' (Exclusive) Jack IrvinNovember 1, 2025 at 4:00 AM 0 Randy Shropshire/Getty Courtney Stodden in July 2025 Courtney Stodden is speaking out on legal underage marriages The singer and TV personality married exhusband Doug Hutchinson when she was 16 and he was 51 "I don't want this to happen to anyone else, and it scares me," Stodden tells PEOPLE Courtney Stodden wants to raise awareness about legal underage marriages.
- - Courtney Stodden Won't Stop Talking About Legal Underage Marriages: 'I Don't Want This to Happen to Anyone Else' (Exclusive)
Jack IrvinNovember 1, 2025 at 4:00 AM
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Randy Shropshire/Getty
Courtney Stodden in July 2025 -
Courtney Stodden is speaking out on legal underage marriages
The singer and TV personality married ex-husband Doug Hutchinson when she was 16 and he was 51
"I don't want this to happen to anyone else, and it scares me," Stodden tells PEOPLE
Courtney Stodden wants to raise awareness about legal underage marriages.
The singer and TV personality, 31, rose to fame for marrying ex-husband Doug Hutchinson when she was 16 and he was 51. Despite the fact that she was underage at the time, their marriage was valid because her parents gave legal permission — and she wants to stop others from going through the same experience.
"I don't want this to happen to anyone else, and it scares me," Stodden tells PEOPLE, noting that underage marriage remains legal with parental permission in 34 states. The organization Equality Now backs up that fact and states that additionally, "4 U.S. states do not require any minimum age for marriage, with a parental or judicial waiver."
"We're the hotbed for the dirty little secret, which are pedophiles marrying our children legally in the United States, so that's why I'm speaking out," continues Stodden, who got divorced from Hutchinson in 2020 and is now married to husband Jared Safier.
She recently revisited her first marriage for a Lifetime biopic about her life, I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story. While making the film was a difficult experience, she felt it was necessary.
"I'm glad I did it, but boy, it's been hard to watch it," says Stodden of the film. "It's something I've lived through, and it's the PG version, it's the TV version. A lot of scenes were cut because it was too much for TV."
"It's the craziest story I've ever heard, and it's my own," she adds.
Shortly after its release last month, Lifetime announced I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story became the network's No. 1 film of the year.
"People are actually listening. That, to me, is priceless, and I'm not used to it, so I think it's taking me a little time to just digest it and get used to this new feeling of being heard," says Stodden, who will continue speaking out through music and an upcoming memoir.
Earlier this month, she released a new song, "Choke," which features a direct, cutthroat message underneath its shiny dance-pop production.
"I was sitting by the fire one night, and I just wrote in my diary, 'I hope your abuser chokes,'" she explains. "For me, it came from a really deep level, but then I'm just like, you know what? If I'm too much for you, then you can just choke."
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: October 31, 2025 at 10:45PM on Source: GL MAG
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