Courtney Stodden Reveals the Neurological Reason Behind Her “Weird” Behavior in 2011 Interview
Courtney Stodden, now 31, has opened up about the neurological reason behind her unusual behavior during a 2011 interview as a young bride. In an Instagram post on March 30, she shared a clip of the interview alongside her husband at the time, Doug Hutchison, and explained that there was a deeper cause for what people found amusing.
“In the moment, they turned it into a joke… but there was a reason. There’s a part of my story no one ever understood,” Stodden wrote in her caption. The clip features her sitting beside the actor, Green Mile star Doug Hutchison, who is now 65. During the interview, Stodden, then 16, can be seen pursing her lips multiple times and briefly sticking out her tongue. Her expression appeared tense as she looked him up and down.
Stodden revealed that she was later diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome. “As an adult, I was diagnosed with having suffered from Tourette’s syndrome… and for most of my childhood I lived with tics I couldn’t control,” she shared. She described symptoms such as stuttering, eye squinting, mouth movements, and muscle tension — things her body needed to release, whether she wanted to or not.
She explained that her symptoms began when she was very young. While she eventually outgrew the seizures she once experienced, the tics remained. “I never talked about it before… because I was ashamed. I didn’t want to out myself. I thought it would make me look weird, like something was ‘wrong’ with me,” she said. “So I hid it… I tried to make it look intentional. I tried to make it look s— because I was a child… trying to be seen as a woman.”
Stodden mentioned that the disorder quieted down around her 13th birthday, but it resurfaced during the first interview after her 2011 wedding. “My nerves brought it right back to the surface, that moment people turned into a meme… people thought I was on something,” she said. “I wasn’t, there was no alcohol, no pills. Nothing in my system… what you were seeing… was a little girl with Tourette’s under pressure, being watched, trying to hold herself together.”
Stodden finalized her divorce from Hutchison in 2020 after several separations. Their relationship had drawn intense media attention due to the significant age gap between them. Years later, she served as an executive producer on a Lifetime biopic chronicling their marriage.
“I thought I was healed from everything. I really did. I’ve been through a decade of therapy twice a week before this project started. So, when I got this movie, I thought ‘I’m ready. I’m strong.’” she told OK! in October 2025. “‘All my wounds are healed.’ I quickly realized that that was not the case. When I was 16, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, especially when you’re being controlled and groomed and not realizing what’s happening.”
Stodden’s openness about her struggles with Tourette’s and the challenges of her early marriage highlights the importance of understanding and empathy. Her journey reflects the complexity of living with a neurological condition while navigating public scrutiny and personal growth.
