Was it love or was it a crime? It seems like Mary Kay Letourneau still, to this day, does not think that her affair with her student Vili Fualaau was illegal. Now, more than 20 years after she was convicted of raping Vili when he was 12 years old and she was 34, Mary is speaking out and she claims that she did not know that having a sexual relationship with a minor was a crime.

“If someone had told if anyone had told me there is a specific law that this is a crime. If you had someone on here that knew Mary back then, would Mary have known,” Mary, who is now 56 years old, said in an interview on Sunday Night on Australia’s Channel Seven. “I did not know I have said this over and over again, had I had known — if anyone knows my personality — just the idea that this would count as a crime,” she continued before trailing off.

It was the scandal that shocked the nation when the news broke that Mary, a married woman and mother-of-four who was also a schoolteacher at Shorewood Elementary School in Burien, WA, was involved in an affair with her student. And not only was Mary having an affair with an underage boy, but she was pregnant.

mary kay letourneau vili fualaau kids
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She was already married with four children met Vili when he was 8 years old, and to this day they both agree that he was the one who had been pursuing the relationship.

“I just remember yes there was one point and I said put that away, I just meant the idea. There was a moment where he did say he was in love with me, and it scared me,” Mary said and confirmed that he professed his love for her before things got physical between them.

When asked if there was any point that Mary started to realize that she was having feelings for one of her students, she didn’t provide a clear answer. “I feel kind of awkward answering that because it’s sort of wanting to connect it to, ‘This was a student-teacher relationship,'” she said, maintaining that they were in love. Now, 20 years later, the couple is still together and are raising two children.

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