Courtney Stodden, 16: Husband Doug Hutchison, 51, Is "My Soulmate"
Credit: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage; N/C
Young at heart?
Lost's Doug Hutchison and his wife Courtney Stodden faced a great deal of criticism for their marriage in May. Hutchison, 51, is 35 years older than his 16-year-old wife.
The Green Mile star met Stodden, an aspiring actress and pop singer, when she signed up for his acting workshop online. After a 4-month courtship over the internet, Hutchison learned that the attractive blonde he'd been flirting with was still just a teenager.
"My world turned upside down," he admitted in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America. "[Online communication] is a really unique and beautiful way to get to know someone," he gushed. "We didn't have the distraction of the physical."
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Stoddard's mother monitored her daughter's exchanges with the actor, and was "fully aware" of their staggering age difference.
"I said [that] if you and [Courtney's father] have any misgivings whatsoever about this, if you are uncomfortable with it, I will respect you, and Courtney will respect you, and we will step back," Hutchison said.
Stodden's mother and father trusted their daughter's judgment and ultimately gave parental consent for her to marry her much-older beau. It was actually Stodden's mom who first suggested the duo get married in a state that would allow it.
So how did the 51-year-old's relationship with an underage girl not break any laws? Up until their marriage, they were never physically intimate.
"I was a virgin," Stodden said. "I knew that if I kept that, I would be blessed with a beautiful gift. And God did! He blessed me with my soulmate."
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But not everyone is okay with this May-December romance. Hutchison's agent and manager dropped him, and his own mother cut ties with him. "We knew this was gonna happen," he said. "We knew we were gonna have to weather the repercussions of our decision and our union. This is just the beginning. It brought us closer together."
Tell Us What You Think
75GROSS!!
hope he got a pre-nup!
Agreed the age group is too young. You do can people who, let's use a less extreme example, in their early 20's who are more mature than people much older but she is still likely to be emotionally naive at 16. They say there's no bigger fool than an old fool and on sites like soulmate.co m people do find their soulmate or soulmates with age differences but this is likely to be an age gap of less than 15 years.
Ack! She's waaay to young to know what a soulmate is. If you ask me, that guy ought to be in jail for statutory rape! He's old enough to be her FATHER, for pete's sake!
Ah soul mates.
Maybe you guys are too young to remember that people used to get married at a young age as late as the early 1900's. It was considered acceptable for young women in mid teens to marry and frequently it was to older men who could provide a good living and had established a home. My own grandmother was fifteen when she married and had seven children. This was the mode in Europe and early America. Not so scandalous as we now think. Look at Edgar Allen Poe who married his wife at fourteen or so.
ACTUALLY......it is legal in most states to be married at the age of 16 as long as you have parental consent. and unfortunately it isnt child prostitution. her parents dont belong in jail it was legal. the law is the law we may not like it but we follow it sometimes for the worse not the better. that being said i dont believe that it is quite right- but thatst my opion but my in laws are 14 years apart and they have been married for almost 30 years so age isnt that big an issue
Oh, what the hell. She seems to have the same "talent" as Jessica Simpson - both of them.
lmao
Too bad she isnt 16, and if she is she's certainly not a "good christian" and her parents are horrible, go to her official website and look at her gallery, if this is 16 then ..... wow. guess gold diggers are starting younger and younger these days
AGE AINT NOTHING BUT A #.......SO EVERYBODY NEED TO GET OVER IT....
love is a feeling you feel when you are about to feel a feeling that you never felt before. so obviously courtney didn't fight the feeling
back in the older days most girls where married at age 14 and if they wasnt by the time they was 18 they was considered old. but times have changed and keep changing its all on how one looks at it.
How can she know what love is at the age of 16? I don't think it is right. She is still a kid. But to each their own. Wish them in the best of luck and a happy marriage. I would never have approved of my girls doing that. But again to each their own
Also, this is what happens when viagra is so easy to get nowadays.
4 months? FOUR MONTHS? Yeah, you really get to know EVERYTHING about a person after 4 months. At least they wanted to keep it legal when it came to having sex. If he got a prenup, he is definately the smart one.
Just to let all you people know Courtney is really 16, i use to b very good friends with her. We use to hang out all the time.
@DaveDaniels ... it is only statutory rape if there was intimacy before the legal marriage, and if you read the article, there wasn't.
I wonder if the girl is who she says she is because she looks like a 35 year old woman in the face..maybe they've been looking at a 16 year olds birth certificate but maybe it's not hers.
I'm not proud that I know this, but the girl truly is just 16. GMA looked up her birth certificate. They were married in Las Vegas and her wedding dress wasn't even demure! Super short with the garter showing. Awful. Anyway, in Las Vegas the girl needed her parents permission and they could wed. Sad but true. She has the intelligence of a turnip...saw her in a couple videos, but we know why he wanted to be with her..duh.