Courtney Stodden stood in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Sept. 30 as California enacted the kind of restriction Stodden has spent years advocating for. Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1267, which sets 18 as the minimum age for marriage and domestic partnerships in the state.
Stodden was 16 when she married actor Doug Hutchison in 2011. Hutchison was 50, and Stodden’s parents approved the marriage. Stodden has since characterized that relationship as abusive and predatory.
The new law takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. Until now, California had no absolute statutory minimum age for marriage because minors could receive a marriage license with parental consent and court approval.
Stodden joined other survivors and advocates at the Sacramento signing after working with Unchained At Last on the campaign. In a statement released by the governor’s office, Stodden said the work would continue beyond California and called for similar protections in all 50 states.
Stodden Celebrated the Signing With a ‘Daddy Newsom’ Joke
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Stodden’s own post after the ceremony mixed memories of her teenage marriage with a much lighter aside about the governor. She wrote that she had spent years wishing someone had protected the girl she was at 16 and said California had now protected another child from the same legal possibility.
Then came the joke. “And yes, I called him Daddy Newsom,” Stodden wrote, according to TMZ. She followed it with a line about having “a weakness for a man with a pen.”
Stodden also thanked Unchained At Last and the other survivors who worked on the legislation. The final line of the post was considerably more direct about what comes next: “All 50, baby.”
AB 1267 Removes California’s Exceptions for Minors
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California law previously allowed a person under 18 to obtain a marriage license after securing written parental or guardian consent and a court order. AB 1267 repeals that authorization rather than replacing it with another exception.
The bill text also changes the rules for domestic partnerships. Both people establishing a domestic partnership must now be at least 18, and the provisions that allowed minors to enter one are repealed.
California had been one of three states without a statutory minimum marriage age. With the new law, it joins 17 other states that have banned marriage below 18 without exceptions, according to the governor’s office.
Assemblymember Gail Pellerin authored the measure. Her office said AB 1267 reached Newsom without a single opposing vote in the Legislature after years of unsuccessful attempts to enact a complete ban.
Stodden Married Doug Hutchison at 16
Stodden’s role in the campaign grew out of the marriage that first made her a national tabloid figure. She married Hutchison in 2011 with her parents’ permission while she was still 16. He was days away from his 51st birthday.
As an adult, Stodden began describing the experience very differently. When the divorce became final in 2020, she wrote that looking back made her feel “absolutely taken advantage of,” according to PEOPLE.
She later began speaking publicly against laws that permit minors to marry with adult approval. During the California campaign in August, Stodden told followers that a marriage license did not give a child the same independence or resources available to an adult.
Stodden had already been working with Unchained At Last when AB 1267 passed the California Senate unanimously. She urged supporters to continue contacting lawmakers while the measure moved through its remaining legislative steps.
Her personal life has changed substantially since the Hutchison marriage. Stodden married producer Jared Safier in December 2024. The current campaign has focused on the legal conditions that allowed her first marriage rather than on preventing adults from choosing marriage for themselves.
California Had Tried to Change the Law Before
The Sept. 30 signing followed nearly a decade of unsuccessful efforts to establish an absolute minimum marriage age in California. Earlier proposals met resistance from organizations concerned about removing marriage as a legal option for minors in every circumstance.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposed AB 1267. CalMatters reported that the organization argued marriage can provide minors with legal protections and benefits and that a complete ban would eliminate that option rather than addressing coercion through additional safeguards.
Supporters of the ban argued that parental consent and judicial review did not always protect minors from family pressure. Pellerin said survivors had described difficulties finding attorneys, leaving home or seeking help from the same adults whose approval could be involved in a marriage.
Planned Parenthood had opposed earlier California attempts to prohibit child marriage but did not take an official position on AB 1267, according to CalMatters. Previous legislation enacted in 2018 kept minor marriage legal while adding interviews intended to identify coercion, abuse and trafficking.
AB 1267 replaces that system with a minimum age of 18 beginning Jan. 1.