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Jason Alexander has issued an apology to Courtney Stodden after she accused him of acting inappropriately toward her in a 2012 Funny or Die sketch when she was just a teenager.
The sketch featured Alexander — who was 52 at the time — rubbing his phone on 17-year-old Stodden’s breasts and joking that once she turned 18, he would “have his way” with her.
In an Instagram post Monday, Stodden shared a picture from the skit and wrote: “I was 17 years old in this photo. The older I get, the more impossible this is to understand. During this comedy sketch, Jason Alexander repeatedly rubbed his phone across my breasts while saying there was ‘no signal’ in my head but ‘plenty of signal’ in my chest.”
“Looking back now, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke,” continued Stodden, who is now 31. “People still say, ‘You chose to be there.’ Legally, I couldn’t make those decisions for myself. That’s the point. I can’t change what happened to me but I can ask myself: How did so many adults look at a minor and decide this was acceptable?”
Alexander, 66, said in a statement to TMZ: “Looking back at the comedy sketch in which Ms. Stodden and I participated in 2012, I completely agree that it was inappropriate and I truly regret it. But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer my sincerest apologies.”
Stodden noted that Alexander, best known for playing George Costanza on NBC sitcom Seinfeld from 1989 to 1998, is listed as a writer on the sketch, which was titled “The Don Clay Show with Courtney Stodden.”
At the time, Stodden was married to Green Mile actor Doug Hutchison after they had tied the knot when she was 16 and he was 51 in 2011. She filed for divorce in 2018.
“As an adult, that fact has become harder — not easier — for me to understand. I was a minor,” the media personality said on Instagram. “I didn’t have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults. The paycheck went to Doug.”
She added, “The production moved forward. I was the only child in the room. I felt so alone.”
Stodden did not immediately return The Independent’s request for response to Alexander’s apology.
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