Jason Alexander has issued an apology for an "inappropriate" comedy sketch he participated in with Courtney Stodden in 2012, stating he "truly regrets it" and is "deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden."
Stodden, who was 17 at the time of the sketch titled "The Don Clay Show with Courtney Stodden" for Funny or Die, recently brought attention to the video on Instagram. She described how Alexander rubbed a phone against her breasts while making remarks about signal strength and joked about taking advantage of her once she turned 18. Stodden, now 31, noted that Alexander was a writer on the sketch in addition to starring in it with her and her then-husband, Doug Hutchison.
According to Stodden, contracts for the sketch were signed by adults, and the payment went to Hutchison, as she was a minor and legally unable to consent to the participation. She expressed her difficulty in understanding how adults deemed the sketch acceptable when she was the only minor present and felt "so alone."
"I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke," Stodden stated in her Instagram post. "People still say, ‘You chose to be there.’ Legally, I couldn’t make those decisions for myself."
Stodden shared that her intention in speaking out is not to dwell on the past but to help foster a future where children are better protected and adults in positions of power are held to a higher standard. She is currently an advocate for California's AB 1267, a bipartisan bill aiming to set the minimum marriage age to 18 with no exceptions.
Stodden and Hutchison married in 2011 when she was 16 and he was 51. She has since referred to Hutchison as a "predator" and "pedophile" for the union, claims he has dismissed. Stodden filed for divorce in 2018, and it was finalized in 2020. Her mother, who gave permission for the marriage, has reportedly apologized to Stodden for allowing it.