Mary Kay Letourneau blames the media & wants to start teaching again
Barbara Walters interviewed Mary Kay Letourneau on Friday night. She’s the former teacher who (at age 34) statutory raped her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau. She already had four children of her own before she became pregnant with Vili’s child. Mary Kay subsequently served seven years in prison. She and Vili are still together. She’s 53, and he’s 31. They have two teenage daughters and have been married since May 2006 (when Vili was 21). He works as a DJ (under the name DJ Headline), and she found employment as a paralegal. Mary Kay and Vili sat down with Barbara Walters to discuss their upcoming tenth wedding anniversary. And because two of these parties are desperate for attention, and I’m not talking about Vili.
Highlights from this interview include Mary Kay blaming the media for what happened to her. Mary Kay would also love to go back to teaching even though she’s still a registered sex offender. She’s already found some extra work by tutoring and giving piano lessons. Lordy. Some excerpts:
Mary Kay is delusional “I don’t know if enough time will pass where it will take away what the media did to our story. Because it was so big, and they ran with it so fast. There’s a story of us that has a life of its own. But it’s not our story.”
Mary Kay on their marriage: “If it wasn’t strong enough in the beginning, it wouldn’t have carried through those years.”
Vili on their marriage: “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.”
Mary Kay wants off the sex offender list: “Recently I said, ‘It’s been 10 years, why don’t I lift that?’ 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.”
Mary Kay says all her kids are close: “When we were first married they were very involved in our home. All of our holidays were always together. And they’re very close with their sisters.”
Vili feels differently: “It’s an awkward feeling, for sure, to be close in age with someone technically your stepson or stepdaughter.”
Mary Kay on how their daughters found out: “There was never a sit-down chat: ‘Now is the time we’re going to talk to our children about this. They seemed to already know … because they grew up with it. There’s just never been a, ‘Wow, we better explain.'”
Vili doesn’t want his daughters to date: “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 … I don’t support younger kids being married or having a relationship with someone older. I don’t support it.”
[From ABC]
Mary Kay and Vili’s two daughters also appear in the interview. The girls attend the same school district where Mary Kay used to teach when she committed statutory rape. The girls figured out what happened via Google and gossip from their school friends. Awful.
Mary Kay still doesn’t seem to understand why what she did was wrong. She lacks a conscience, and Vili appears miserable during this interview. He does admit being depressed at his lack of “guidance” while raising two young children for years on his own. Get this — when Vili talked about his depression, Barbara responded that a “loving wife” and a 10-year marriage is “more than a lot of people have.” That is so messed up! Vili is a victim, his youth and life were stolen from him, and he has no idea what a healthy relationship looks like. I feel for him and his daughters. No pity at all for Mary Kay.
You can watch pieces of the interview on the ABC website.
Here are some photos of Mary Kay and Vili in 2006.
Photos courtesy of Getty; screencap courtesy of Heidi Gutman/ABC
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbWpha390e8yaqbKXm5bGoLjEraauqp6arrarwaWYpp2jlMGpsb6mnJ2hkZTEorrTrJatp4%2BowaK%2B05irnpmTnbavs76anpqhnmQ%3D