Courtney Stodden Officially Divorced From Doug Hutchison, Says She Was ‘Absolutely Taken Advantage of’ When She Married Him at 16

Now that Courtney Stodden is officially divorced from actor Doug Hutchison, she’s coming clean about her feelings. The couple were married back in 2011, back when Hutchison was 50, but Stodden was only 16. On Tuesday, she took to Instagram to post a photo of her and her ex, writing in the lengthy caption that she’s “officially divorced from actor Doug Hutchison.”

“It’s an emotional day for me. God only knows how he’s feeling, but I can tell you that it’s for the better,” Stodden continued. “I look back at this picture and feel absolutely taken advantage of. 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 / growing up in such an environment — it became a lonely and dark place.

After a brief plug for her upcoming book, Stodden wrote the last passage to Hutchison directly, stating that she’ll “always love” him, yet she’ll “always be angry.”

“You’ve left me — a child-woman, feeling belittled and confused. These things I shall overcome,” she said. “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. Wait a respectable amount of time before marrying. Children aren’t on your level. I’ll always love you regardless. Be better. As shall I.”

During their marriage, Stodden was a regular on the reality TV circuit, appearing in U.K.’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2013 and Celebs Go Dating in 2017. Her other credits include Million Dollar Matchmaker, Reality Ex-Wives, Hollywood Hillbillies and The Mother/Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition. They both appeared on Couples Therapy back in 2012.

The couple first split up back in February of 2017, although Stodden listed their date of separation as September 1 that year. She formally filed for divorce in March of 2018, and they reached a formal settlement back in January.

That same month, Stodden also opened up about her personal struggle with depression in a YouTube post, where she admitted that she “didn’t see a way out of all the pain and the grief and the insanity that I’ve struggled with in my life.”