Mary Kay Letourneau And Vili Fualaau Open Up About Their Affair, Depression, Jail And Their Two Daughters

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau are opening up about their controversial relationship, which began when Letourneau was Fualaau’s sixth-grade teacher in 1996.

Mary Kay Letourneau And Vili Fualaau Interview

As their tenth wedding anniversary approaches, Letourneau, now 53, and Fualaau, 31, are speaking publicly for the first time in years in an interview with Barbara Walters and 20/20. The interview will cover the beginnings of their relationship, which earned Letourneau an 8-year prison sentence for second-degree child rape and a place on the sex offender’s registry, through their marriage.

Fualaau was 13 when he began an affair with his teacher that resulted in pregnancy. Their first daughter Audrey was born in May of 1997, barely six months before Letourneau was sentenced to 89 months behind bars. In the exclusive interview with Walters, Letourneau described how her close, emotional bond with Fualaau became physical.

“The incident was a late night that didn’t stop with a kiss. And I thought that it would and it didn’t,” Letourneau told Walters.

Letourneau was released on parole after six months in prison but was sent back to serve out her sentence after she was caught meeting with Fualaau despite the condition that she stay away. She returned to prison where she gave birth to the couple’s second child, Georgia, in 1998.

Vili Fualaau Opens Up About Depression

“It was a huge change in my life…I don’t feel I had the right support, the right help behind me… from my family, from anyone in general. I mean, my friends couldn’t help me because they had no idea what it was like to be a parent, I mean because we were all 14, 15,” Fualaau explained.

While Letourneau was in prison, Fualaau was not allowed to visit her, and he revealed that the loneliness he felt then quickly developed into a severe depression. He revealed that he felt that even counselors sent to help him failed to comprehend the complexity of his situation. “It’s a feeling where it’s like there’s this hopelessness. You feel like you can’t do anything, like nobody understands you, you can’t talk to anyone,” Fualaau added.

The couple got married in 2005, less than a year after Letourneau was released from prison. “It was a huge relief to actually get married… [after] just going through all those years and then having so many questions and them not being answered,” Fualaau recalled.

Letourneau And Fualaau Introduce Teenage Daughters

The controversial couple used their sit down with Walters to introduce their now teenage daughters, Audrey, 17, and Georgia, 16, to the world. Audrey is graduating in the spring and plans on going to community college, while Georgia is currently a sophomore in high school. The two are Fualaau’s only children, but Letourneau was a young mother of four at the time of her arrest. And, while her husband divorced her and received custody of their children while she was in prison, Letourneau claimed that she still sees her children from her first marriage, adding that they are “very close with their sisters.”

Walters revealed that both girls seemed very accepting of how their parents met, and said that they admitted to knowing something wasn’t quite right when they realized they only saw their mother during prison visits. Fualaau said that he felt it was important to be honest with his daughters about his relationship with their mother, and has warned them against dating older men.

“The reason for me telling them that was just from – out of experience. A relationship could lead to something that you think you wanted back then. You don’t really want it, maybe, years later,” he said.

Despite his honesty, Fualaau admitted that he does not want his daughters to follow in his footsteps, saying, “I don’t support younger kids being married or having a relationship with someone older. I don’t support it.”

Barbara Walters’ interview on 20/20 will air Friday, April 10, at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.