Depressed Courtney Stodden Tells All On Tragic Lifetime Of Bullying & Abuse
Dec. 21 2017, Updated 9:50 a.m. ET
Courtney Stodden admitted she was struggling with depression, but for the first time ever she opened up exclusively to RadarOnline.com about her lifetime of bullying and how it almost destroyed her life. “Since I was a kid, I’ve been bullied because of my looks. The bullying really started when I got to 6th grade as I became way more developed than the others at an early age,” Stodden told RadarOnline.com. “This wasn’t a positive for me. I began to become very insecure about my body because of the negativity it attracted.” Click through the gallery to understand Stodden’s insecurities in her own words.
Courtney Stodden admitted she was struggling with depression, but for the first time ever she opened up exclusively to RadarOnline.com about her lifetime of bullying and how it almost destroyed her life. “Since I was a kid, I’ve been bullied because of my looks. The bullying really started when I got to 6th grade as I became way more developed than the others at an early age,” Stodden told RadarOnline.com. “This wasn’t a positive for me. I began to become very insecure about my body because of the negativity it attracted.” Click through the gallery to understand Stodden’s insecurities in her own words.
Stodden, 23, revealed her elementary school abuse after she developed breasts at an early age. “Even my favorite 4th grade teacher started treating me differently. I remember passing her in the hall in 6th grade (2 years later) and saying: ‘Hi Mrs. Rasmussen!’ She gave me a look that I’m all too familiar with now, but at the time I found completely foreign. She gave me a cold up and down look, scoffed, then proceeded to pass me as if I didn’t exist. From being her favorite student to receiving that response as a 12-year-old, you have to understand that it was very damaging. I felt like I had done something wrong.”
“That experience left me heartbroken and I started to feel like my looks were a bad thing,” Stodden told RadarOnline.com. “I became extremely insecure about myself from that point forward.”
The reality star told RadarOnline.com that her friends turned against her in a vicious way. “As I continued to develop, I started losing girl friends that I had grown up with. They started slut-shaming, bullying me all to the point where I felt unsafe. I even had my left arm fractured due to some of the girls’ bullying and had to be home schooled.”
Stodden shot to fame at age 16 when she married actor Doug Hutcison, who was 50 at the time. “The only attention I received came from the opposite sex, for better or worse and so I found some comfort in that,” she told RadarOnline.com about her early teen years. “That has fed into my depressive state today, the lack of acceptance from women and the overly sexualized attention men give, as if that is all I have to offer. That is why I am so insecure.”
She detailed things people have said to her. “I’m an idiot. I’m dumb. I’m not very bright. I’m fame hungry. I’m a gold digger. I’m only good for my body. I’m a bimbo. I’m an old man lover. I’m fake. I’m a trainwreck. I’m crazy. I’m narcissistic.” And those things crushed her. “Words and actions hurt. Deeper than most people actually realize and when you compound the sheer volume I receive because I’m in the media, the reality is it puts a target on my back.”
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Stodden explained how harmful the abuse was. “It’s as if it’s open season on Courtney Stodden. For a depressive, insecure person – this is super debilitating.”
She told RadarOnline.com that she tried to heal from the pain. “Through the right friendships, relationships, therapy, and channels for emotional expression, like music, writing and acting, I’ve been able to face my demons, acknowledge them and gain strength in myself. This means turning a new leaf, being honest with myself, not pretending anymore to smile when I really feel like crying, saying how I feel and what I feel… and standing up for myself even if it’s scary to do so.” We pay for juicy info! Do you have a story for RadarOnline.com? Email us at tips@radaronline.com, or call us at (866) ON-RADAR (667-2327) any time, day or night.
