How Mary Kay Letourneau’s Abuse of a 12-Year-Old Student Became International News

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Mary Kay Letourneau, the former Washington schoolteacher, drew national attention after she was convicted of sexually abusing her sixth-grade pupil. Her arrest and subsequent imprisonment later led to an unusual marriage with the same student. Letourneau died of stage 4 metastatic cancer on July 7, 2020, at the age of 58. She passed away at her home, surrounded by her children and her former husband, Vili Fualaau—the former student she was convicted of raping in 1997.

Letourneau had pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree child rape after it was discovered that she had been in a sexual relationship with Fualaau, who was just 12 years old at the time. Their relationship resulted in two pregnancies—Audrey, born in 1997, and Georgia, born in 1998, while Letourneau was serving time in prison.

The scandal broke in March 1997 when police learned of the abuse. At the time, Letourneau was 34, a married mother of four, and a respected teacher. She was initially sentenced to six months in jail with a no-contact order barring her from seeing Fualaau.

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Within weeks of her release, however, she was caught with him again. In February 1998, authorities found the pair together in her car, along with cash, clothes, and her passport hidden under the floor mat. She was pregnant with their second child. A judge revoked her parole, sentencing her to seven and a half years in prison.

While incarcerated, Letourneau gave birth to Georgia and co-authored a book with Fualaau titled Only One Crime: Love. Despite her conviction, Letourneau consistently denied wrongdoing, insisting that she and Fualaau were in love and refusing to see her actions as criminal.

After serving her full sentence, Letourneau was released in 2004 and registered as a sex offender. Fualaau, then 21, successfully petitioned to have the no-contact order lifted. Less than a year later, the two married in May 2005 at a winery in Woodinville, Washington, in front of more than 200 guests.

The couple raised their two daughters together. Letourneau also rebuilt relationships with her four children from her first marriage, though the blended family faced difficulties—particularly since one of her sons was just a year younger than Fualaau.

For several years, the pair lived quietly, though they occasionally appeared in media interviews. In 2015, they sat down with Barbara Walters on 20/20, an American Television newsmagazine, where Letourneau described Fualaau as “the love of my life.” Fualaau admitted that he struggled with depression and substance abuse in adulthood, acknowledging how difficult their relationship had been for him.

In 2017, after more than a decade of marriage, Fualaau filed for legal separation. Their divorce was finalized in 2019, though they remained on good terms.

Letourneau was born in 1962 to John G. Schmitz, a Republican congressman and college lecturer whose career ended in scandal after it was revealed that he had fathered two children outside his marriage. Raised in a wealthy, religious family, Letourneau married her childhood sweetheart, Steve Letourneau, with whom she had four children before her arrest.

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Her affair with Fualaau shocked her community, colleagues, and family, who had long regarded her as a devoted teacher and mother.

In early 2020, Letourneau was diagnosed with cancer. Despite their separation, Fualaau reportedly stayed by her side and cared for her in her final months. In a joint statement, her family said:

Friends later revealed that although Fualaau had come to recognize the abuse and its damaging impact, he still grieved her loss deeply. He eventually entered a new relationship and welcomed a daughter, Sophia, in 2022. In 2024, he also became a grandfather when his daughter Georgia gave birth to a son.

Mary Kay Letourneau remains one of the most notorious figures in American criminal history—a teacher whose exploitation of a child blurred the lines between crime, scandal, and tabloid fascination, leaving behind a story that continues to spark debate decades later. [Rh/Eth/VP]

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