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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 for rape.
The 43-year-old actress and former socialite kept her wedding ring on as she left the back exit of a Los Angeles criminal courthouse, shading her emotion behind dark sunglasses while wearing a blue shirt and slacks white. Her face tensed after collapsing in court upon hearing Masterson’s punishment.
Phillips is ‘a shell of herself’ after Masterson’s May sentencing, as a close friend revealed to DailyMail.com that she is now ‘really trying to be strong for her daughter’ which she shares with the convicted rapist, 47.
Masterson blew Phillips a kiss to his wife as he was handcuffed to serve 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 holding the arm of a man she had walked out of the building with, as she tried to hide her face.
Bijou Phillips, 43, kept her wedding ring on as she walked out the back exit of a Los Angeles criminal courthouse on Thursday, wearing dark sunglasses, a blue shirt and white pants.
Phillips grabbed a man’s arm as she left the courthouse and tried to hide her face
Phillips supported Masterson throughout his eight-day trial and subsequent sentencing, but looked dejected as the actor’s victims read heartbreaking statements in court.
Masterson was found guilty in May of two rapes committed in 2003 and sentenced on Thursday.
After the guilty verdict, Masterson was locked up in the notorious Central Men’s Jail in downtown Los Angeles pending sentencing, leaving Bijou to care for their daughter Fianna alone.
A close friend told DailyMail.com she was discouraged at the prospect of raising their daughter alone, and that her husband being sent behind bars made her “feel like she was crying a death”.
Speaking about the mother-of-one’s current state of mind, a source said, “Right now, Bijou is spinning around the drain and filled with all the emotions and no emotion at all.
“She is a shell of who she was. She is really trying to be strong for her daughter as she tries 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 like they were.”
Masterson kisses his wife Bijou Phillips in the courtroom as he is sentenced to 30 years in prison, a court sketch shows
Phillips supported Masterson throughout his eight-day trial and subsequent sentencing, but looked dejected as the actor’s victims read heartbreaking statements in court.
Phillip kept her face hidden with sunglasses as she left the courthouse
Phillips and Masterson, both Scientologists, met at a celebrity poker game in 2004, married in 2011 and shared a daughter while living lavishly in Los Angeles.
But the source said prosecution for his crimes, two decades later, had devastated their picturesque lives, saying: “They had their life, and it was completely uprooted and transformed and the change is as scary and miserable as one could imagine.
“Her friends are trying to be there for her, but things are really tough… She’s really trying to figure it all out and what her life will be like once it’s all said and done.
“Whatever happens to Danny will change his life forever and in a not-so-worthy word, it sucks.”
Bijou is accepting the prospect of raising her child alone after her husband, 47, was convicted of two counts of rape by a Los Angeles court in May and sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday.
Bijou, pictured with her and Masterson’s daughter Fianna, pictured in 2015, is said to have “really tried to be strong” as she had to raise their child on her own.
Masterson and Phillips led luxurious lives in Los Angeles before being prosecuted for rape more than two decades after their actions. Pictured: The couple’s mansion in California’s Hollyridge Loop
Phillips is no stranger to attention. She is the daughter of Mamas & The Papas frontman John Phillips, and her sisters Mackenzie and Chynna have landed leading roles in numerous movies and TV series.
But the family has also been rocked by a scandalous story, one of the most shocking being when Mackenzie revealed their father had had incestuous sex for 10 years from the age of 19.
Bijou was legally emancipated from her drug-addicted parents when she was just 14, The Guardian reported, after years of being placed in foster care from the age of about three “because her parents were not fit” to care for her.
“They spent years and years fighting for custody, so I bounced back a lot,” Bijou wrote in a statement. candid instagram post in 2018.
Masterson had two tries. His first, six months earlier, resulted in a mistrial after another jury became desperately deadlocked on the three rape charges.
Scientology was the elephant in the room during Masterson’s trial, where women who testified against him said the reason they took so long to report him to the police was their fear of reprisals. of the Church of Scientology.
One of the women said she was born into a Scientology family and when she reported the rape to the church, a senior official “made it clear that Danny was untouchable”.
“I didn’t choose to be born into Scientology – and I didn’t choose to be raped by Danny Masterson,” the mother-of-three said, fighting back tears. “Scientology tried to silence us…to intimidate us.”
“I wish I had reported him to the police sooner,” she said, adding that at no time did Masterson “show an ounce of remorse for the pain I was going through.”
“The first years after the rape were rather dark. I lost almost everything. I had to start my life over at the age of 29,” she said.
Bijou has supported her husband throughout his legal battle and was joined by Scientologist friends and family members to show their support during his sentencing on Thursday. The couple are pictured together during their trial in May 2023
Before he was sentenced, Masterson’s attorney, Shawn Holley, urged the judge to impose concurrent, not consecutive, sentences of 15 years to life, saying it would be “fair and just.”
District Attorney and Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller asked the judge for a 30-year life sentence, saying Holley’s plea for just 15 years was “not fair and…absolutely not.” Thirty years in prison for life are deserved.
“After Masterson’s first rape, he had time to reflect on what he had done to her,” he said. “Despite that, he still raped.”