Model Courtney Stodden comes out as non-binary: ‘My spirit is fluid with a kaleidoscope of colour’
TV personality Courtney Stodden. (Tommaso Boddi/WireImage)
Model Courtney Stodden came out as non-binary Tuesday evening (13 April), describing themselves as a “kaleidoscope of colour”.
The 26-year-old American media personality reflected on their childhood in an Instagram post, adding that their pronouns are they/them.
“They/them/theirs,” they wrote in the caption.
“I don’t Identify as she or her. I’ve never felt like I ever fit in anywhere.”
Stodden opened up about their time in school in Ocean Shores, Washington. They were blighted by bullying from the age of 12, with school bullies even beating them and fracturing their left arm during one startling attack.
“I was bullied horribly in school because I was different,” they said. “The other girls never understood me.
“It got so bad that my mum pulled me out of school. And still, I don’t fit in.
“I never really connected with anyone my age. My spirit is fluid with a kaleidoscope of colour.
“#BeKind #BeOpen #LoveYourself.”
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For Stodden, who became the years-long target of belligerent tabloids after marrying Doug Hutchinson when they were 16, a moment of relief.
They said in an interview with Variety that they are euphoric to finally live their truth.
“I’m excited to begin to truly start expressing myself without worry of others’ judgments or opinions,” they said.
“I’ve lived too long hiding from who I really am. I’m so excited for everyone to see my true self creatively and spiritually.”
Starting their career in beauty pageants, modelling and hosting cable TV programmes, the now 26-year-old rose to fame – or infamy – when they married Hutchinson, the then 51-year-old Lost actor.
Years on and since divorced, Stodden has compared themselves to embattled singer Britney Spears – both victims, they described in an Instagram post, of a hostile press.
“Ever since Framing Britney Spears has come out, I’ve received apologies from both sides – people in the media and supporters from around the world.
“I think the documentary has opened a lot of people’s hearts to what it’s like being in the shoes of a personality in the centre of judgement.
“Major props to queen Brit. She was everyone’s ‘sideshow’, yet still she stands… she still rises. She is a rock to me.
“I’ve felt the world pointing at me while they watched and laughed as I sank in the middle of the ocean.
“I know what it feels like to be everyone’s ‘train wreck’ yet no one ever sees you for who you are or has compassion for your pain.”
