Seinfeld star Jason Alexander has made a donation to charity after being called out for his involvement in an “inappropriate” comedy sketch in 2012.
The 66-year-old has apologised for the “regretful” skit filmed with former child star Courtney Stodden, now 31, who this week slammed the comedian online for performing an “adult joke” when she was 17.
The actor, best known for playing George Costanza in Seinfeld, has apologised. Getty
“I was grateful to learn Jason Alexander sent a beautiful gift to Unchained at Last,” Stodden revealed in a social media post on Saturday.
According to multiple US news outlets, Alexander donated $US15,000 ($21,400) to the charity, dedicated to ending the legal practice of child marriage in the United States.
The charity appears to have been chosen by Stodden, an advocate for the cause after her own underage marriage in 2011, at age 16.
On Tuesday, Stodden called out the Shallow Hal star for a 2012 skit, called The Donny Clay Show with Courtney Stodden, filmed when she was a minor.
On Instagram, Stodden shared a photo from her appearance, which showed Alexander who 52 at the time, rubbing his phone against her chest as part of the punchline.
“I was 17 years old in this photo,” she captioned the screenshot in which she’s wearing a red bikini. “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, [his character] joked that when I turned 18 he’d like to take me behind the couch and ‘have his way’ with me.”
She noted Alexander was credited as a writer of the sketch on IMDb.
“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 said, adding the money from the sketch went to her then-husband, Doug Hutchison, who married her when he was 51 and she was 16.
Courtney Stodden is now campaigning to for a bill that would end child marriage loopholes in California. Instagram/@courtneyastodden
They married in 2011 and quickly became tabloid fixtures until a permanent split in 2017.
Reflecting on the sketch, Stodden continued: “Looking back now, I don’t see comedy. I see a 17-year-old girl whose body became part of an adult joke.”
Stodden said she was the “only child in the room” and children deserved laws that protect them.
Hutchison was 51 when he married 16-year-old Stodden. Getty
“I can’t change what happened to me but I can ask myself: How did so many adults look at a minor and decide this was acceptable?”
Seinfeld star Alexander has since “sincerely apologised” for the sketch had has agreed “it was inappropriate”.
“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 said in a statement.
“But more importantly, I am deeply sorry for any harm or distress it has caused Ms Stodden,” he said.
“I offer her my sincerest apologies.”
After the donation, Stodden continued her acknowledgement of Alexander’s actions.
“I want to sincerely thank him for choosing to turn words into action,” the young star commented. “Accountability isn’t about public punishment – it’s about taking meaningful steps that can help create change.”
She is using her platform to campaign for AB 1267, a bipartisan Californian bill that would end child marriage, making 18 the absolute minimum age for marriage with no exceptions.