Bijou Phillips looks grief-stricken as she leaves court following her husband Danny Masterson being sentenced to 30 years in prison for rape
- Bijou Phillips, 43, appeared dejected after her husband Danny Masterson was handed a 30-year prison sentence
- The actress and former socialite hid her face and clutched a man’s arm as she exited the courthouse
- Masterson blew a kiss to his wife as he was sentenced, after his victims read heartbreaking impact statements about the impact of his crimes
A grief-stricken Bijou Phillips was seen leaving a Los Angeles courthouse moments after her husband Danny Masterson was sentenced to 30 years in prison on rape charges.
The actress and former socialite, 43, kept her wedding ring on as she left through the back exit of a Los Angeles Criminal Courthouse, shading her emotion behind dark sunglasses while wearing a blue shirt and white pants.
After her life was shattered by her husband’s crimes being prosecuted after more than two decades, a close friend revealed to DailyMail.com that she is a ‘shell of her former self.’
Masterson blew Phillips a final kiss to his wife as he was hauled off in cuffs to carry out his sentence, as she was joined inside the courthouse by several Scientology friends and family members.
As she was approached by the media after the proceedings, she was seen clutching the arm of a man she exited the building with, as she tried to hide her face.
Bijou Phillips, 43, kept her wedding ring on as she exited through the back exit of a Los Angeles Criminal Courthouse on Thursday, wearing dark shades, a blue shirt and white pants
The actress looks sullen as she stepped out of the courthouse, after a close friend told DailyMail.com the case has left her ‘a shell of her former self’
Phillips clutches the arm of a man as she left the courthouse and tried to hide her face
Phillips stood by Masterson throughout his eight-day trial and subsequent sentencing, but looked dejected as the actor’s victims read heartbreaking impact statements to the court.
Masterson was found guilty in May for two rapes committed in 2003 and was sentenced Thursday.
Following the guilty verdict, Masterson was locked up in the notorious Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles as he awaited sentencing, leaving Bijou to care for their daughter Fianna alone.
A close friend told DailyMail.com that she was despondent at the prospect of raising their daughter by herself, and her husband being sent behind bars has her ‘feeling like she is grieving a death.’
Speaking about the mom-of-one’s current state of mind, a source said: ‘Currently Bijou is circling the drain and is filled with all the emotion and no emotion at all.
‘She is a shell of who she has been. She is really trying to be strong for her daughter as she is trying to figure out life and what it will be like for her.
‘It can only be compared to a divorce or a death for her not being able to be with Danny the way they were.’
Masterson blows his wife Bijou Phillips a kiss in the court room as he is sentenced to 30 years behind bars, seen in a court sketch
Phillips stood by Masterson throughout his eight-day trial and subsequent sentencing, but looked dejected as the actor’s victims read heartbreaking impact statements to the court
Phillip kept her face hidden with sunglasses as she left the courthouse
A close friend of the actress said she is now ‘really trying to figure it all out’ after her life was shattered by her husband’s rape charges
Phillips and Masterson, both Scientologists, met at a celebrity poker game in 2004 and married in 2011, and lived in a lavish mansion in Los Angeles as their raised their daughter.
But the source said the prosecution of his crimes two decades on has devastated their picturesque life, saying: ‘They had their life, and it has been completely uprooted and changed and change is as scary and miserable as one would imagine.
‘Friends are trying to be there for her, but things are really tough.
‘She is really trying to figure it all out and what her life will be after all things are said and done.
‘Whatever happens with Danny will change her life forever and, in a not so dignified word, it just sucks.’
Bijou is coming to terms with the prospect of raising her child alone after her husband, 47, was convicted on two counts of rape in an LA court in May, and was sentenced to 30-years on Thursday
Bijou, pictured with her and Masterson’s daughter Fianna pictured in 2015, is said to be ‘really trying to be strong’ as she faces raising their child alone
Masterson and Phillips enjoyed a life of luxury in Los Angeles before he was prosecuted for the rapes over two decades after they occurred. Pictured: The couple’s mansion at Hollyridge Loop in California
Bijou Phillips is seen sobbing in court as her husband, and the father of her young daughter, is sentenced to 30 years in prison for the rape of two women, seen in a court sketch
Phillips is no stranger to the spotlight. She is the daughter of The Mamas & The Papas frontman John Phillips, and her sisters Mackenzie and Chynna have landed starring roles in numerous films and TV.
But the family has also been rocked by a scandalous history, one of the most shocking being the moment Mackenzie revealed their father had an incestuous sexual relationship for 10 years from when she was 19.
Bijou legally emancipated herself from her drug-addicted parents when she was just 14, The Guardian reported, which came after years of being in foster care from the age of about three ‘because her parents were unfit’ to look after her.
‘They spent years and years fighting for custody, so I bounced around a lot,’ Bijou wrote in a candid Instagram post in 2018.
Masterson had two trials. His first, six months earlier, resulted in a mistrial after a different jury were hopelessly deadlocked on all three rape charges.
Scientology was the elephant in the room during Masterson’s trial, where the women who testified against him said the reason they took so long to report him to the police was their fear of retribution from the Church of Scientology.
One of the women said that she was born into a family of Scientologists, and when she reported the rape to the church, a top official ‘made it clear that Danny was untouchable.’
‘I did not choose to be born into Scientology – and I did not choose to be raped by Danny Masterson,’ said the mother of three daughters, fighting back tears. ‘Scientology attempted to silence us … to intimidate us.’
‘I wish I had reported him sooner to the police,’ she said, adding that at no point did Masterson ‘show an ounce of remorse for the pain I was suffering.’
‘The first couple of years after the rape were pretty dark. I lost everything pretty much. I had to start my life over at the age of 29,’ she said.
Phillips was joined by Scientology friends and family members to show her support at his sentencing Thursday. The couple are pictured together during his trial in May 2023
Before he was sentenced, Masterson’s attorney, Shawn Holley, urged the judge to impose concurrent, not consecutive 15 year to life sentences saying that would be ‘fair and just.’
Prosecutor and Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller asked the judge to hand down a 30-to-life sentence, saying that Holley’s plea for just 15 years was ‘not fair and just…absolutely not. Thirty years to life in prison is deserved.
‘After Masterson raped the first time he had time to think about what he had inflicted,’ he said. ‘Despite that, he raped again.’
The disgraced actor’s victims, identified only as Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2, shared heartbreaking impact statements detailing their struggle after Masterson drugged and raped them in 2003.
At the sentencing trial, Jane Doe #1 called Masterson a ‘true coward and heartless monster,’ adding that to this day she suffer from an extreme fear of the dark and frequently wakes up crying.
Sometimes, she said, she hides in a closet or screams out the window: ‘I’m not okay.’
‘You are pathetic, disturbed and extremely violent and the world is a safer place with you in prison,’ said Jane Doe #2, looking straight at the actor, dressed in a gray suit and open-neck gray shirt.
‘You are a true coward and heartless monster,’ added Jane Doe #1. ‘I think life is an appropriate sentence.’
Masterson played wise-cracking Steven Hyde on That ’70s Show from 1998 to 2006
Both Masterson and Phillips are Scientologists, and the religion was the elephant in the room during the actor’s court case with a victim testifying the church pressured her to keep quiet
Jane Doe #2 said she was pressured to keep quiet by the secretive church, but became ‘enraged’ when she learned there were other rape victims.
‘I decided to report him with the full understanding that my life would be demolished again (by going against the don’t tell doctrine of) Scientology which has terrorized me since,’ she said.
She said Masterson had been ‘enabled and protected’ by Scientology, and addressed him directly as she said: ‘When you raped me you stole my ability to have any stability in my life for decades. After you raped me I stopped living.’
She said that her ‘promising’ acting career ‘nosedived after the ‘heinous attack hijacked my life.’
‘I know you take pride in hurting women. You treated me like I was less than trash. Your emptiness and cowardice will be your true legacy.
‘You are pathetic, disturbed and extremely violent and the world is safer with you in prison. I would not wish rape on my worst enemy.
‘You thought the law did not apply to you. You moved in smugness and spite.’
She concluded ‘victim impact statement’ by saying that despite the two decades of of trauma she’s suffered since Masterson brutally raped her, ‘I forgive you.’
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