India, Oct. 13 -- Model and singer Courtney Stodden has condemned child marriage in the United States, describing it as 'America's dirty little secret'. Reflecting on her marriage at age 16 to actor Doug Hutchison, who was 35 years her senior, Stodden revealed she became the 'breadwinner' in a relationship which left her emotionally scarred and silenced, Fox News reported.

Stodden revisited her story in the Lifetime film I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story, part of the network's Ripped from the Headlines series. In interviews promoting the film, she shared that realizing the depth of her trauma in adulthood has been painful but necessary.

"When I first hit the spotlight as a young girl, my brain was not developed yet," Stodd...