'It Was So Toxic': Courtney Stodden Is 'Grateful To Be Alive' Following Her Contentious Divorce From Ex Doug Hutchison
Reality TV Queen Courtney Stodden is getting real about the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband, Doug Hutchison, after finalizing her divorce.
“It was so toxic, I was in such a toxic situation for what 10 years now,” Stodden told RealiTea with Derek Z host Derek Zagami, adding that “I’m really grateful to be alive.” In 2011, the 16-year-old blonde beauty married the 50-year-old actor, and on the surface the teenager appeared to have it all, but behind closed doors she claims her life was a living nightmare.
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As OK! previously reported, Stodden opened up about her relationship with The Green Mile star and the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of Hutchison. “I didn’t realize I married an alcoholic. I didn’t realize I married somebody who was abusive,” Stodden claimed, adding: “I was abused, night after night.”
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“I was 16/17 years old when it first started,” she explained, noting that she “was so overwhelmed” that she used alcohol to “cover up” her depression and heartache. The Love Addict alum added that she “would then walk the Hollywood Hills and hide behind trash cans at two in the morning” to find solace and “cry.”
Despite Stodden and Hutchison’s nearly 35-year age gap, it was the blonde bombshell’s aesthetic and quest for reality TV fame that people ridiculed her for. Stodden revealed that the bullying she has endured stretched all the way back to when she was a child, as OK! learned she was “bullied” out of her hometown.
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“I haven’t even been back to my hometown since I became famous,” Stodden declared, noting that she’s “too scared to go back there,” due to her having “a lot of haters.” The Celebrity Big Brother alum admitted that the “only way” she would go back to her hometown outside of Tacoma Washington “is if I did a documentary about it,” she continued. “I remember when I left I was like I’m never coming back here, ever,” she said about her hometown.
The model even compared her rough childhood to that of pop icon Britney Spears after she saw the explosive documentary Framing Britney Spears — which details the “Toxic” singer's meteoric rise to fame and her ongoing messy conservatorship battle with her father, Jamie. “When I watched the Britney documentary... I was like, OMG, my story is kind of eerily similar,” she said, referencing how they both achieved “fame at a young age.”
After the release of Framing Britney Spears, Stodden took to Instagram to send a message of thanks to her fans. The influencer revealed that she’s “received apologies from both sides — people in the media and supporters from around the world” and that the explosive docuseries “has opened a lot of people’s hearts to what it’s like being in the shoes of a personality in the center of judgement.”
Now, at 26 years old, the blonde beauty is working on leaving her past behind her and forging a new path forward. She’s working on her music, with her latest single, titled “Side Effects” out now and according to her Instagram has a makeup line in the works. “So excited to announce Courtney Alexis Cosmetics dropping #Summer2021,” she wrote earlier this month.