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Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander, 66, has publicly apologized to reality star Courtney Stodden, 31 after she called him out on her Instagram for a lewd comedy sketch they appeared in together when she was a minor.
In the post, Stodden says she was 17 years old when she and Alexander filmed the Funny or Die sketch, which parodied daytime talk shows, such as Dr. Phil.
The sketch featured Alexander rubbing his cellphone across Stodden’s breasts because it was the only area with “plenty of signal.”
Stodden posted a screengrab of the sketch on Monday, which aired in 2012. In the caption, she wrote, “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. Later in the sketch, he joked that when I turned 18 he’d like to take me behind the couch and ‘have his way’ with me.”
Stodden also noted that IMDB credited Alexander as one of the writers of the episode, a “fact” she says “that has become harder–not easier” for her to understand.
“Looking back now, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke,” she said.
“People still say, ‘You chose to be there.’ Legally, I couldn’t make those decisions for myself. That’s the point.”
On Tuesday, Alexander issued an apology to Stodden. In a statement released to several U.S. publications, the Seinfeld star said, in part, “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.”
He continued, “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
Stodden first made international headlines in 2011 after marrying actor Doug Hutchison, who was 51 at the time (she was 16). The couple divorced in 2020. She has since become an advocate for outlawing child marriage and ending the exploitation of minors within the media industry.
“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,” she wrote. “That’s exactly why I speak out today. Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn’t have to become adults before realizing the law should have protected them all along.”
