20 Years Later — Mary Kay Letourneau Is Still (Technically) With Her Former Student Vili Fualaau
Two decades after being found guilty of having a sexual relationship with her student, Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau are ready to share even more details about their controversial relationship. In a two-hour A&E documentary airing today, May 29, Mary Kay will open up about her life post-prison — and give viewers an inside look at her life now.
In 1997, Mary Kay, who at the time was a 34-year-old sixth-grade teacher, was arrested and charged with child rape after her husband Steve Letourneau discovered she was having sex with her 12-year-old student Vili. While awaiting the conclusion of her trial, she gave birh to the couple’s oldest daughter, Audrey. Shortly after, she was found guilty and sentenced to six months in jail and three years of sex offender treatment.
However, two weeks after her release, she was found having sex with Vili in her car and was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years behind bars. Once again, she became pregnant and gave birth to their daughter, Georgia. Mary Kay and Vili wrote a book, titled Only One Crime, Love, about their experience and it was published in France that same year.
Mary Kay was released in 2004 and she tied the knot with Vili, who was of legal age by then, one year later. In a 2015 interview with Barbara Walters, it was revealed that Mary Kay found creative ways to communicate with her former student while she was behind bars. “Mary stayed in touch with Vili in a lot of different ways. One way was to send out messages in the milk bottles that she was — [producing] milk in prison for her babies, so she put little notes in the caps and they went out,” case expert Gregg Olsen explained. “She sent audiotapes out. She had prisoners make phone calls for her because she could not contact him [Vili] directly.”
However, Mary Kay, 56, and Vili, 34, continue to raise their daughters together despite the scandal that has followed them their entire lives. Keep reading below for an update on the disgraced teacher today:
Is Mary Kay Letourneau still married?
Technically, yes — but Vili filed for separation from his former middle school teacher last summer. Shortly after, Mary Kay filed her own paperwork to have the case dismissed — prompting Vili to confess that it’s all “a publicity stunt.” Vili explained his rationale for separating, claiming he could not move forward with his “Cigaweed” business because he was married to a convict.
“There is a piece of paper that is filed but that doesn’t depict what is going on,” he told Radar Online at the time. “Be patient. It’s not serious as people think it is… Maybe we’re sleeping in different rooms. The paperwork that is filed doesn’t have all that information.”
What does Mary Kay Letourneau do for a living?
Currently, Mary Kay does not have a job — and is supported by her husband, who works as a DJ (Mary Kay has been spotted at his “hot teacher” gigs and signs autographs for guests) and he is trying to get into the “Cigaweed” business in Washington where they now live. However, in 2015, Mary Kay revealed she wants to be taken off the sex offender registry and be allowed to teach again. “Recently I said, ‘It’s been 10 years, why don’t I lift that?'” she told Barbara Walters. “There’s a process, there’s a form, you take it to court and then they grant it if it looks like it should be granted.” However, that doesn’t seem to have happened yet.
What are Mary Kay Letourneau’s children doing today?
Before her marriage to Vili, Mary Kay had four children —Steve Jr., 34, Mary Claire, 31, Nicholas, 27, and Jacqueline, 25 — with her first husband Steve. Today, Nicholas is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he studied computer engineering and Steve, who is two years younger than Vili, is a father-of-two. Very little is known about her oldest daughters, but Mary Kay insists all her kids are extremely close. However, Vili has admitted in the past that it is weird having stepchildren close to his age. “It’s an awkward feeling, for sure, to be close in age with someone [who is] technically your stepson or stepdaughter,” he said in the 2015 interview.
Mary Kay’s daughters with Vili are also all grown up — and beautiful. Audrey, 20, and Georgia, 19, revealed they have never had a sit-down chat with their parents about their controversial relationship but know all about it. Their dad also revealed how he warned them to not date at a young age “The reason for me telling them [not to have boyfriends] was just from, out of experience,” Vili explained. “A relationship could lead to something that you think you wanted back then. You don’t really want it, maybe, years later.” When asked about teacher/student relationships, he added, “I don’t support younger kids being married or having a relationship with someone older. I don’t support it.”
Mary Kay Letourneau’s first husband has moved on, too!
Following her arrest in 1997, Steve filed for divorce and got full custody of the couple’s four kids. Steve has worked for Alaskan Airlines for over 30 years and he has a daughter by his second ex-wife, Kelly Whalen. An insider revealed he is planning to marry his current longtime girlfriend. “He has little communication with Mary Kay,” a source told Radar Online. “But he’s gotten on with his life and everything is positive. He is a wonderful man and father. None of the kids have turned out bad and he did it all on his own. Steven is a wonderful, hardworking man. He’s always provided and care for his family.”
And he proved it. When asked about Mary Kay and Vili’s separation last year, he told People magazine, “I’ve moved on and I have nothing to say.”
Mary Kay Letourneau: Autobiography airs Tuesday, May 29, at 8 p.m. EST on A&E.
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