Letourneau and ‘boy’ hub splitting
The former-sixth-grade-student-turned-husband of disgraced teacher Mary Kay Letourneau has filed for separation.
Vili Fualaau, now 33, asked a court in Washington state on May 9 for a legal separation from Letourneau, who began a sexual relationship with him when he was 12 and she was 34. She was married with four children at the time.
Letourneau, who first met Fualaau when he was in second grade, was pregnant with their first daughter when she was arrested in 1997. He was 14 at the time.
The pair married in 2005 after Letourneau, now 55, served more than seven years in prison on a charge of second-degree child rape. They have two children, including one born behind bars.
“They’ve been having issues for a while now,” a source close to the couple told People magazine.
“They tried to work through them, but it didn’t work. They’re still committed to being good parents to their children.”
In 2015, Fualaau and Letourneau sat down with ABC’s Barbara Walters, telling her the affair began over summer break.
“The incident was a late night that it didn’t stop with a kiss,” Letourneau said. “And I thought that it would, and it didn’t.”
In early 1997, her husband found a love letter she had written, and authorities were alerted, leading to her arrest.
Fualaau, who grew up without a dad and has had an unstable relationship with his mom, said he has struggled with depression.
“I’m surprised I’m still alive today,” Fualaau said. “I went through a really dark time.”
When asked how he’d feel about his own daughters sleeping with a teacher, Fualaau said he wouldn’t condone it.