SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Mary Kay Letourneau sobs over ‘media carnage’

Jun 1, 2018, 10:20 AM

Fualaau, Letourneau...

Vili Faulaau and Mary Kay Letourneau. (AP)

(AP)

More than 20 years after she caused one of the biggest scandals to rock the 90s, Mary Kay Letourneau is back, and speaking out on a new A&E documentary.

The teacher who received seven years in jail for conducting an affair with then-middle school student Vili Fualaau can be seen in the trailer crying over the “media carnage” that has plagued her for the past two decades.

“Sounds young — I get it,” Letourneau sobs in the clip. “Was young — I get it.”

After getting out of jail, Letourneau married Fualaau. The couple have two children together.

Dori remembered covering the scandal, which took place in King County’s Highline School District, during the early days of his radio show.

“Her attorney loved the show and he loved coming on and challenging me on my perception of Mary Kay,” recalled Dori, calling Letourneau a child rapist.

He pointed out that if the genders had been reversed, the story could have turned out very differently in the media. Instead of the case being treated by everyone as a serious crime, however, Dori remembered that some people made jokes such as, “Where were the teachers like that when I was in middle school?”

“If that had been a male 34-year-old teacher and a 13-year-old girl, it would have been universal condemnation … there was just such a gender double-standard,” Dori said.

“Everybody wants to hear the story, whether they want to criticize it or analyze it,” Letourneau continues tearfully in the clip. “Twenty years — but it’s still there.”

“Yeah — when you have sex with a 12-year-old child or a 13-year-old child, it tends to follow you around a little bit,” Dori observed wryly.

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Mary Kay Letourneau sobs over ‘media carnage’