OG Internet Icon Courtney Stodden Is Back In The Headlines, This Time For Comparing Herself To Britney Spears
Source - Courtney Stodden says she feels a "strong connection" to Britney Spears because of her own experiences being bullied as a teen in the spotlight.
In an interview with Fox News this week, Stodden, 26, shared her reaction to the "Framing Britney Spears" documentary and the persistent slut-shaming and mockery she faced during her teenage years. The lingerie model originally made headlines in 2011 at age 16 when she married "Green Mile" actor Doug Hutchison, who was 51 at the time.
Here's a photo of the happy couple:
Jesse Grant. Getty Images.
Advertisement
The documentary has been the talk of Hollywood and beyond since its Feb. 5 release as it shines a light on the ways Spears was ridiculed by the media, the public and the paparazzi.
Stodden says she had no intention of tuning in to the doc because she was afraid of what it may "trigger." But once her phone began blowing up with messages, mostly apologies from others who watched it, she gave in.
"I just recently watched it and I was blown away. I felt such a strong connection to her story especially being a teenage girl hypersexualized and scrutinized at the same time," Stodden said. "It's all like my story. It's scary."
The 26-year-old, who grew up in Ocean Shores, Wash., said she can relate to Spears' upbringing as a small-town, "Christian girl" and touched on her own fractured relationship with her father.
Part of me always felt bad for Courtney Stodden. She was sixteen years old when her parents got her a pair of boobs, dyed her hair blonde, and married her off to that creep Doug Hutchison. From then on out her life was basically a disaster, at least that's how the media portrayed it. Everyone who's anyone ridiculed her for the decisions they thought she was making when in reality the people controlling her life were the adults around her. Which is why when she started comparing story to Britney's I kind of understood where she was coming from. Here's what she had to say...
"My dad and I don't speak and we haven't in a really long time. He basically abandoned me when I turned 17. He was also in construction like Britney Spears' father, an alcoholic and bankrupt. I watched thinking, 'This is like a mirror,'" Stodden added.
Another "big one" for Stodden was the narrative surrounding Spears' conservatorship. She said she lost control of her own finances during her marriage to Hutchison.
"I would do my work and give my money basically to my ex-husband and a few other people who managed me," Stodden claimed.
Stodden also recalled being the butt of jokes across late-night and national morning talk shows, and even stars she once looked up to.
Stodden said this "vicious cycle" has continued for years. "I feel like people loved tearing Britney down. I felt next in line as the young, train wreck blonde that everybody could bully," she added.
What I didn't understand was how she thought she was even in the same stratosphere in terms of the amount of criticism as Britney Spears. That's not me taking away from Courtney's experience, that's me stating a fact. One person is a fourteen-time platinum record selling cultural icon with over 100 million albums sold, the other is not. One person is an international celebrity, the other is not. One person was relentlessly followed around by swarms of photographers from the age of 16 to now, the other was not. Britney's fame is on such a level that most of us, myself included, can't even comprehend it. But hey, who am I to judge? If Courtney Stodden wants to compare herself to Britney Spears she has every right to do so. As long as she doesn't start comparing their music I'm fine with it. Now take it away, Brit!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.