California has become the latest US state to prohibit child marriage, after Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation requiring anyone tying the knot in the state to be at least 18 years old. The new law takes effect on 1 January and marks the culmination of a years-long campaign by survivors and advocacy groups who argued that minors were being trapped in abusive and predatory unions.
Newsom described the measure as a "long overdue" step to safeguard young people. He was joined at the signing by Courtney Stodden, whose marriage at 16 to a Hollywood actor five decades her senior sparked international headlines more than a decade ago. Stodden, who has since become a prominent voice against the practice, called the change a "victory" and said those who survived child marriage should never have been made to bear that burden alone.
She added that she intends to keep pressing for change until every state in the country protects children from marriage, saying she would "keep fighting until children are protected from marriage in all 50 states." Her own wedding to actor Doug Hutchison, known for roles in films including The Green Mile, A Time to Kill and I Am Sam, took place in 2011 and drew widespread attention, leading to appearances on several US reality programmes.
California is now the 18th state to ban the practice since 2018, a striking shift given that roughly a decade ago child marriage remained legal in every US state. Despite that progress, the practice is still permitted in 32 states, according to the source material. Advocates say public awareness of the issue remains low, with many Americans unaware that minors can legally wed in so many parts of the country, or that such marriages have repeatedly been linked to allegations of abuse.
Until the new law, California had no minimum age for marriage. Children could wed provided their parents consented and a judge approved the union. There was also no route for anyone under 18 to obtain a divorce, a gap that campaigners say left many girls stuck in relationships they could not escape.
Brittany Bee, a former child bride, told the BBC that the legislation carries significance far beyond California's borders. "California has sent a clear message to the world today," she said, describing it as a message of hope for children that they might be free from systemic violence and be able to choose their own path. Bee said she was married at 17 in an attempt to flee an abusive home, only to find herself allegedly mistreated by her adult husband, describing the experience as moving from one prison to another. She rejected the notion that she had consented, saying children are incapable of giving meaningful consent.
Sara Tasneen, who says she was forced to marry a man nearly twice her age when she was 15, told the BBC it felt "surreal" to see the state finally acknowledge that child marriage should be banned. She recalled being introduced to her husband on the morning of their arranged wedding, saying she was forced to become his wife and that her entire life changed that day. She became a mother the following year at 16 and dropped out of school. Tasneen said seeing the bill through to passage had been a marathon, and that she was grateful children would no longer be able to marry in California after 1 January 2027.
The advocacy group Unchained At Last, which campaigns to end child marriage across the United States, estimates that about 9,000 girls were married each year in California. The organisation says almost all child marriages involve girls wed to adult men, a pattern that campaigners argue reflects both gender inequality and gaps in legal protection. Such figures have fuelled arguments that the issue is not a historical relic but a continuing problem in many communities.
Survivors and their allies have spent years lobbying state legislatures to close what they describe as loopholes allowing minors to marry with parental permission. The California result follows a wider trend in which states have gradually raised minimum marriage ages, often after testimony from women who describe coercive relationships, lost education and limited options for leaving.
Supporters of the ban argue that setting a uniform age of 18 removes the legal ambiguity that predators can exploit. They also point to the absence of divorce rights for minors as evidence that children who marry lack the legal standing to extricate themselves. For Tasneen and others, the law represents both a personal milestone and a template for further reform elsewhere.
Yet the patchwork of laws across the country means the protection now offered in California is not available to minors in the 32 states that still allow the practice in some form. Campaigners say they will use the California victory to press lawmakers elsewhere, arguing that child marriage undermines education, health and economic independence for young people.
The signing also puts a spotlight on the role of judges and parents under the old system, which required parental consent and judicial approval but set no age floor. Critics say those safeguards were insufficient, allowing marriages that courts might otherwise have questioned. The change means that from the new year, no such approval process can authorise a wedding involving a minor in the state.
For Stodden, the event carried personal weight. She has spoken publicly about the scrutiny and controversy surrounding her teenage marriage, which led to appearances on US reality television, including the VH1 series Couples Therapy. Her presence at the signing underscored how survivors have moved from subjects of tabloid coverage to drivers of legislative change.
As California prepares to implement the ban, attention now turns to the states that have yet to act. Advocates say the momentum built since 2018 shows that reform is possible, but they caution that ending child marriage nationwide will require sustained pressure, further survivor testimony and lawmakers willing to confront a practice that many still assume is already illegal.
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