Courtney Stodden struggled with Bethenny Frankel’s recent comments about the Kardashians presenting “distorted” beauty ideals because they couldn’t help but recall how the “Real Housewives of New York City” alum treated them during a 2013 interview.
“How are you @bethennyfrankel for girls/women when you mocked me like that on your show when I was 19?” Stodden, now 28, wrote on Instagram on Friday. “I canceled all my other interviews in NYC and immediately returned to LA crying my eyes out.”
Stodden has since spoken to Vidak For Congress about the post and her experience with Frankel, telling us: “Honestly, it doesn’t make me feel good to relive such a traumatic moment, but I wanted to point out the double standard she lives with. .
“I would never invite a guest to my TV show just to make fun of them — especially not from a 19-year-old,” they continued. “The way you treat someone stays with them. Words are important. I was a very impressionable girl who screamed for love inside as she clawed at me and allowed her guests to point at me and laugh at me.”
At the time, the model was three years into a tumultuous marriage to Doug Hutchison, someone they’ve since characterized as a “predator.”
Frankel nudged her guest’s appearance which, from the teen’s perspective, didn’t just feel skin deep.
“You said before that you want to go back to being a 19-year-old… You come in like you could be in a strip club,” Frankel said. “You look very promiscuous, and you look like the next move” should to make a porn video… if this is the way you market yourself.”
Stodden believes the host’s comments were not only harmful but hypocritical.
“As I sat there, she judged me by my hair and clothes, while her dress was about the same length as mine,” they tell us. “Her makeup is done. Her hair was done. She chose to belittle someone for ratings. For advertising her show. To possibly advance her career as a TV talk show host.
“If she were to insinuate that the Kardashians aren’t role models for young women, would she say her behavior exemplifies a role model? You ask if I’m cured…usually yes. But hearing/reading her comments definitely struck a chord. It clearly opened a wound that I have had to tend to over the years.”
While Stodden isn’t looking for an apology, they would like “recognition and change” from Frankel, “so that others don’t have to experience the things I have so publicly.”
‘What if an older woman, for whatever misogynistic reason, talked to her child like that? Women should always support women,” they told us. “I’m so sick of women hurting other women, and for a very long time. It’s not okay. Usually when someone hurts someone else, it means they are the ones hurting inside.”
And for others who are ashamed of their looks, Stodden has a simple message.
“You are enough. Your clothes don’t define you or your worth – whatever you wear!”