Courtney Stodden has revealed that they wrote a suicide letter during a period of severe mental distress, attributing their struggles in part to past online harassment from Chrissy Teigen and others.
Stodden, 29, who has been open about their experiences with bullying and mental health challenges, shared that the cruel messages they received left lasting emotional scars. Teigen, among others, previously faced backlash for directing harmful comments toward Stodden, who was thrust into the public eye as a teenager after their controversial marriage to actor Doug Hutchison.
Though Stodden has since worked to heal from the trauma, they acknowledged that the pain once pushed them to the brink.
In the trailer for the ABC News documentary IMPACT x Nightline: Confessions of a Child Bride, Courtney Stodden, 30, disclosed that they had written a suicide letter during a period of deep distress, largely due to relentless online harassment following their marriage at age 16 to actor Doug Hutchison, who was 51 at the time.
Stodden, who is nonbinary and uses she/her and they/them pronouns interchangeably, recalled the cruelty they endured, particularly highlighting posts from model Chrissy Teigen. Among the messages Teigen directed at Stodden was a 2011 tweet stating: “.@CourtneyStodden my Friday fantasy: you. dirt nap. mmmmmm baby.” Another, from 2012, simply read: “I hate you.”
In the documentary, Stodden noted that Teigen later attributed her past behavior to alcohol but expressed skepticism about the explanation. “Saying this to a child when you’re the queen of Twitter… it was so much,” they said.
Stodden admitted that Teigen’s comments played a significant role in their mental health struggles, saying, “I did actually almost succeed at committing suicide because of—”, before stopping and revising their statement to, “That was a huge part of it.” They recalled their final thoughts at the time: “Maybe I don’t deserve to be here when people that high up are telling me I don’t deserve to be.”
Teigen publicly apologized in 2021 after the posts resurfaced, acknowledging the harm she had caused. The backlash led to the loss of multiple brand deals and a temporary departure from social media.#newsafro_
