Jason Alexander Says He’s ‘Deeply Sorry’ to Courtney Stodden Over Controversial 2012 Sketch

Courtney Stodden is getting an apology more than a decade after a controversial comedy sketch from her teenage years aired on national television.

According to a report Us Weekly published Wednesday, July 22, 2026, Jason Alexander has issued a formal apology for his role in a controversial 2012 Funny or Die sketch.

“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,” Alexander, 66, best known for his role on Seinfeld, said in a statement per the outlet. “But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms. Stodden. I offer her my sincerest apologies.”

The apology followed Stodden, 31, going public on Instagram Monday, July 20, revisiting the sketch, which parodied daytime television and featured Alexander using a cellphone to “assess the quality” of her heart.

“I was 17 years old in this photo,” she wrote in the caption. “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,” she continued.

Stodden also pointed out that the Seinfeld alum is credited as a writer on the episode, adding that as an adult, “that fact has become harder — not easier — for me to understand. I was a minor. I didn’t have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults.” She noted her paycheck went to her then-husband, Doug Hutchison, who was 50 when he married a 16-year-old Stodden in 2011; the two divorced in 2017.

“I was the only child in the room,” she wrote on social media. “I felt so alone. Looking back now, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke.” She added, “Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn’t have to become adults before realizing the law should have protected them all along.”