Mary Kay Letourneau, a former high school teacher, once made headlines in the 90s for her scandalous affair with a student, Vili Fualaau. In May 1997, she pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape after news of her liaison surfaced, receiving a seven-year prison sentence. A year after her 2004 release, she married Fualaau. The couple even had two teenage daughters, Audrey and Georgia, and separated in 2017. Three years later, in July 2020, 58-year-old Letourneau died of colon cancer, as per People Magazine.
Over the decades since the scandal first surfaced, multiple documentaries, true-crime shows, and films have featured the case that once shocked the nation. These works include Mary Kay Letourneau: Autobiography and May December, a film inspired by the events that premiered earlier this year.
Mary Kay Letourneau case, explained
According to Parade, Mary Kay Letourneau was a second-grade teacher at Shorewood Elementary School in suburban Seattle. Here, she first met Vili Fualaau, a student, in the fall of 1991. She began monitoring Fualaau, teaching him the piano and encouraging him to pursue art.
Letourneau told The Seattle Times about her sexual relationship with the boy, which began in the summer of 1996. She said, “There was a respect, an insight, a spirit, an understanding between us that grew over time. There was a bonding that was pretty instantaneous.” They had a 22-year age difference at the time – Letourneau was 34, while Fualaau was 12.
The outlet reported that Fualaau told police they had sex for the first time at Letourneau’s house in June 1996 before his 13th birthday. The teacher was married to Steve Letourneau and even had four children with him, who were sleeping in a separate room when the encounter occurred.
Ultimately, in February 1997, Letourneau’s husband found the love letters she had written to Fualaau. Steve then confided the same to a relative, who soon reported the liaison to the school authorities as well as Child Protective Services. Police arrested Mary Kay Letourneau on March 4, 1997, on charges of second-degree child rape. Moreover, at this point, she was seven months pregnant with Fualaau’s child and remained free on bail, awaiting the birth. She gave birth to their daughter, Audrey, in May that year.
In August 1997, the disgraced teacher pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree rape of a minor. However, she insisted that their was consensual and “romantic,” pleading for leniency. Letourneau received a suspended sentence of seven years in prison on the conditions that she would attend a treatment program for sex offenders, take medication for her bipolar disorder, and have no contact with Fualaau.
When was May Kay Letourneau released from prison & what happened afterwards?
Six months later, in January 1998, May Kay Letourneau was released, and within a month, she violated two of the three conditions of her suspended sentence. Immediately after her release, she stopped taking her medication and made contact with Vili Fualaau that February. People Magazine stated that Fualaau told his counselor he and Letourneau had sex at least once during the month she was out on parole. The former teacher got pregnant with their second child.
The judge who had presided over her first sentencing immediately sent Letourneau back to prison to complete her original sentence. While in prison, the convict gave birth to their daughter, Georgia, in October 1998.
After finishing the her sentence, Letourneau became free in August of 2004 and successfully petitioned to have the court’s no-contact order lifted. In May 2005, the 43-year-old married her student, who was 21 at the time.
The duo remained together for many years, and in May 2017, Fualaau filed for separation from Letourneau, who was still a registered sex offender. The latter’s attorney, David Gehrke, told People Magazine, “I’m convinced they were totally in love. But sometimes, people who are totally in love have trouble staying in love.” She died on July 6, 2020.
