A highly-publicized crime plagued her entire
life — and it impacted who was by her side at the very end.
In February 1997, Seattle school teacher Mary Kay Letourneau was arrested for rape, after
her abuse of 12-year-old student Vili Fualaau was reported to authorities. At the time, Letourneau
was 34 and a married mother of four. She had first met Fualaau when he was just 7-years-old,
and she was his second-grade teacher. In May 1997, Letourneau gave birth to Fualaau's child,
and in August of the same year, she pled guilty to second-degree rape of a child.
Letourneau was sentenced to 89 months in prison but was paroled after only 80 days, per History.
By then, she had already given birth to her first child with Fualaau, Audrey. Upon her release,
Letourneau was told to stay away from her former student. However, she ignored this stipulation
and became pregnant with their second child, Georgia, in 1998. Letourneau was subsequently
sent to prison for 7 and a half years. By 2005, the couple had married, and they raised their two
daughters together in Washington state. However, in 2017, Fualaau filed for legal separation.
Although they eventually divorced, Fualaau was reportedly with Letourneau when she died in 2020.
Mary Kay Letourneau was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer six months before her death,
per Entertainment Tonight. In an interview with Dr. Oz, Fualaau revealed that by the
time Letourneau discovered she had cancer, it had already spread to her liver. Fualaau
also explained that Letourneau did not look sick at first but that her health rapidly declined.
Despite her declining health, Letourneau was reportedly in denial about her impending death.
"She believed that a miracle was gonna happen."
According to Biography, a CT scan for a broken arm revealed that the cancer
had spread to Letourneau's brain and spine. Fualaau told Dr. Oz,
"They told us that there wasn't much that they could do at this point."
On July 6, 2020,
58-year-old Mary Kay Letourneau died, per People. Her family released a statement that read,
Letourneau spent her final moments in hospice care, as reported by Entertainment Tonight. After
her death, her attorney revealed that Fualaau was Letourneau's caretaker, despite their divorce. A
friend later told People that Fualaau lost a piece of himself when Letourneau died, even though the
pair had not been together for three years. As Letourneau's attorney explained to Fox13 News,
A few months after Letourneau's death, an unnamed source revealed that the
former teacher felt deep remorse for her past actions, telling People,
People also reported that, prior to her death, Letourneau had written 30 letters to friends
and family to atone for her mistakes. It's unknown if she wrote a letter to
Fualaau. Discussing his client's remorse, Letourneau's attorney told Fox13 News,
In an interview with Dr. Oz, Fualaau admitted that
he didn't want his daughters dating anyone who was significantly older than them. He
also divulged that he did not view Letourneau as a rapist, explaining,
"She is my best friend. And we had our kids together,
and we did get married. And we had a whole life together."