The wrong kind of family bonding? Courtney Stodden's mom, Krista Keller, is currently appearing with her daughter on The Mother/Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition and tells Us Weekly exclusively that her relationship with her daughter is incredibly strained due to drama with Stodden's husband, Doug Hutchison.
Viewers who watched the new Lifetime series' Tuesday, March 1, premiere saw Stodden, 21, accuse Keller, 56, of falling in love with Hutchison, 55. But Keller tells Us that this accusation "just is not true." She says that the family's drama started four and a half years ago when Stodden told her mom three months after marrying the much-older Lost alum that she wanted out of the relationship.
"She goes, 'He’s mean, he’s crabby, he’s old, he’s disgusting. And I want to be with people my own age,'" Keller says. "And this was a hard time for Doug, so Doug was reaching out to me because I was right next door, and I was there for him emotionally. You know, it looked like every time [there were issues with Courtney], Doug wanted to talk with me — I don’t know if Courtney much liked it, but I was there for him when she wasn't."
However, Keller — who points out that Stodden no longer communicates with the rest of their family — says the actor appeared to get overly attached to Keller and even asked if she would stay in his home if his marriage to Stodden fell apart.
"He was asking me to stay there with him and saying that he’s had fantasies of having both Courtney and me," reveals Keller. "And so when he started talking like that, I thought, Oh, my God — this is headed in not a good direction. So I’m the one that actually decided to step away and encourage Doug to find help somewhere else."
According to Keller, she and Hutchison never had sex but "bonded emotionally," and she says she has passed all of the lie-detector tests she has submitted herself to to that prove she is telling the truth about him. She says they shared "warm feelings of supporting each other, that type of thing. There was concern that [I could perhaps fall in love with him] if we continued on being so dependent on each other. That’s why, when I went and started dating my [current] husband, he got really upset about it. He tried to talk me out of dating him. He said, 'I can tell that you don’t love this man. I can tell by looking in your eyes.' And I’m thinking to myself, Why is he trying to talk me out of being with my boyfriend?"
Keller says Stodden has accused her of seeking the limelight, but the mom of three points out that she and Stodden both got offers from porn company Vivid, with Keller declining her offer and Stodden accepting hers. The Krista Keller Talent management company owner believes that her daughter resents her for no longer managing her and admits: "It's going to haunt me every day that I signed that paper for her to marry that man. I feel so bad about it."
"I don’t really even know her anymore," Keller adds. "It’s just like, ever since she got into Doug’s entanglement, she’s just changed. My daughter that I’ve raised and knew and loved is just no more. It’s like she’s gone."
The Mother/Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition airs on Lifetime on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EST.
