UPDATE: Dr. Jenn Berman, the host of “Couples Therapy” has just reached out to The Post to share her thoughts on the controversial couple:
“When I was told that Courtney and Doug were one of the couples for the show I had many reservations… about Courtney being a teen bride and the huge age difference between the two. I was concerned that Doug might be a predator and was very apprehensive about treating them. My producers made it clear to me that if at any point I felt that I could not treat these two that I could ask them to leave the facility. I admit that I came close a couple of times in the beginning. I told them that I did not want to contribute to the exploitation of a minor and if at any point I felt that I was doing that, they would be asked to leave…”
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VH-1 is trying to save one of Hollywood’s most controversial marriages.
Just one year after their shocking Las Vegas wedding, 52 year-old “Lost” actor Doug Huchison and his teenage bride Courtney Stodden are airing their dirty laundry on the network’s reality series, “Couples Therapy.”
“The obvious problem is we have this vast age difference,” Stodden, 18, tells The Post.
“We had trouble talking with each other and understanding what (each other) were trying to say. My husband uses these big words like ‘caveat.’ I have no idea what that means!”
But the series — which premieres tonight — exposes a bigger and potentially deal-breaking conflict for the May-December couple: Hutchison wants to expand the family.
“That was one of our issues in couples therapy,” Stodden admits. “Doug was really wanting a baby and I don’t want one. Maybe down the line when I am, like, 27 years-old. But I don’t know how old my husband is gonna be then.”
For now, Hutchison says, “Courtney is the baby in the family.”
Still a minor when the show was taped earlier this year, the aspiring country singer was not allowed to share a bed with her husband at the rented Los Angeles where five celebrity couples came to receive counseling from Beverly Hills therapist Dr. Jenn Berman.
“We were totally separated until we could see each other on set during the day,” Hutchison says. “And during those hours we never really had time to be alone together. It was really something to contend with — and an interesting problem for couples therapy because all of the other couples were there together and could hold each other at night.”
Stodden was only permitted to be on set for 8 hours each day and was required to sleep at a nearby hotel.
“In a way it was kind of cool to look forward to seeing each other again, and then after the experience was over, to come together as a true husband and wife again,” Hutchison says.
According to Stodden, the couple was unable to have sex during the entire three week shoot. But, she says, “We made up for it afterwards.”