National award caps off Gulmohar’s success, says Sharmila Tagore

Highlights

• Courtney Stodden says she was unaware a controversial 2012 comedy sketch would involve physical contact.
• Her comments come after Jason Alexander publicly apologised for the sketch, filmed when she was 17.
• Stodden says the experience has strengthened her campaign to end child marriage in California.

More than a decade after appearing in a controversial comedy sketch with Jason Alexander, Courtney Stodden has spoken candidly about what she says happened during filming, revealing she "didn't know" the scene would involve physical contact. The television personality's comments follow Alexander's recent public apology for the 2012 sketch, but Stodden says her focus now is on ensuring similar experiences are not repeated.

Stodden reflects on controversial filming experience

The sketch, The Donny Clay Show, was released by Funny or Die in January 2012 when Stodden was 17 and Alexander was 52. In the parody, Alexander played a talk show host who made sexually suggestive remarks and touched Stodden with a mobile phone. The video has since been removed.

Looking back, Stodden said she was not prepared for what would happen during filming.

"I didn't know he was going to be feeling me up on set."

She added that she had trusted the adults around her at the time and only later came to understand the impact of the experience.

"I was very manipulated. Even if I didn't look like a child, or what a 'victim' should look like, there was a child buried under there. I really just trusted the adults around me."

A different perspective years later

Stodden said it was years after filming the sketch that she reassessed what had happened. She recalled watching Pretty Woman for the first time and being struck by a scene involving Alexander's character, saying it prompted her to reflect on similarities with the comedy sketch.

She described the experience as damaging and said her intention in speaking publicly was not to revisit the past, but to help protect minors in the future.

"This isn't about revisiting my past but changing the experiences for minors going forward so they don't have to experience what I had to experience."

Jason Alexander's apology and Stodden's response

Alexander recently issued a public apology, describing the sketch as inappropriate and expressing regret for any harm it caused Stodden.

While she welcomed the apology, Stodden said accountability should extend beyond words. She has encouraged Alexander to support California's proposed AB 1267 legislation, which would establish 18 as the minimum legal age for marriage, or back Unchained at Last, a non-profit campaigning to end child marriage in the United States.

Stodden has been working alongside the organisation to persuade California lawmakers to pass the bill, arguing that legislative change is the most meaningful outcome to emerge from renewed attention on her story.

Alongside her advocacy work, Stodden is preparing her memoir and may take part in a documentary series examining efforts to end child marriage.

Reflecting on how she hopes to be remembered, she said:

"At the end of the day, I don't want to be remembered for what happened to me. I want to be remembered for helping make sure that this doesn't happen again to another child."