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Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau made headlines in the 90s when Mary Kay, Vili’s former teacher, was arrested and charged with second-degree rape, after she started sexually abusing Vili, who was 12 at the time. Their criminal relationship was reported to authorities by one of Mary Kay’s first husband Steve’s relatives. She took a plea deal on the charges. During their relationship, Mary Kay became pregnant, and she gave birth to their first daughter while awaiting sentencing. She received a suspended seven-and-a-half-year sentence, and she was released from prison after three months. She was caught in a car with Vili after her release, and ordered to serve the rest of her sentence. She gave birth to their second daughter while in prison.
After Mary Kay’s release in 2004, she and Vili petitioned the court to have their no-contact order lifted. They were successful, and they got married the following year. They were married from 2005, until 2019, when they filed for divorce. Mary Kay died after a battle with stage 4 colon cancer in 2020.
Courtesy of 7NEWS Spotlight
Three years after Mary Kay’s death, in their story served as the loose inspiration for the 2023 movie May December, which stars Natalie Portman, Julianne Hough, and Charles Melton. And in January of 2024, the late Mary Kay and Vili became grandparents for the first time, when their second daughter gave birth.
Amid the family’s new arrival, get to know more about Mary Kay and Vili’s children.
Mary Kay’s 4 Kids Before Vili
Before beginning her controversial relationship with Vili, Mary Kay was married to her first husband Steve Letourneau from 1984 until 1999. During their marriage, the couple had four children: Steven Jr., Mary Claire, Nicholas, and Jacqueline. After Mary Kay’s affair was revealed, Steve filed for divorce from her and custody of their children, and he’s mostly stayed out of the spotlight ever since. A source close to the family revealed that their kids who are now all grown up have lead lives as well-adjusted adults, according to In Touch Weekly.
A year after Mary Kay and Vili got married, she revealed that her older four kids regularly visited her and their new step-father in a 2006 interview with People. Vili did admit that he felt like there were some hard feelings between Mary Kay’s four kids from her first marriage towards him. “I feel like I don’t really have a place except that I’m their mother’s husband,” he said. “[They] had a mom and dad and then I came into the picture and they think, ‘I hate that guy; if he hadn’t come along this would never have happened.”
Vili further explained some of the difficulties with the older children. “Sometimes I feel hatred toward me, like an energy, a look in the eye,” he told People. “I feel a bit of competition, like, ‘Who deserves Mom’s attention more?’ I back down because she’s his mom and I don’t want him hating me. But I get so frustrated.”
Audrey Fualaau
Mary Kay and Vili’s first daughter Audrey was born while she was awaiting sentencing in May 1997. Three months after their first daughter was born, Mary Kay took a deal and pleaded guilty to two counts of raping a child. As Mary Kay was in prison and Vili was still a minor, they revealed that Vili’s mom Soona cared for their children in the above-mentioned People profile. “We are grateful for all she’s done, and we all worked really hard to stay focused on what’s best for the girls,” Mary Kay told the outlet.
When Audrey became an adult, she opened up about her relationship with her parents, and explained that Mary Kay was a stricter parent in a 2018 interview with Australia’s Sunday Night. She also explained that she felt like she “understood” her parents’ relationship because it was all that she knew. “It was surprising to people. It’s not really been brought to our attention, just because we grew up with it, so we’re adapted to it,” she told the show, per People.
In that same interview, Audrey also explained that she felt like her father was a “friend dad” now that she’s older. “He definitely feels like a young dad now that I’m at that adult age to where I can go to a bar,” she said.
Georgia Fualaau
After returning to prison for violating parole, Mary Kay gave birth to her and Vili’s second child Georgia while in prison in October 1998. Like with her older sister, Georgia was put in her grandmother’s custody. After Mary Kay was released and she married Vili, she explained that she was looking forward to doing more family activities with the girls. “It’ll be nice to take the girls to Disneyland and not have to ask the state or notify Vili’s mom,” she told People in the above-mentioned profile.
When Mary Kay and Vili first split in 2017, a source close to the family told People that the girls were struggling with the split. “They had two great parents who loved and supported them. So now they’re returning the love and support to both their dad and their mom,” they told the outlet. The pair split in 2019, but when Mary Kay died from cancer in 2020, her lawyer told The New York Times that Vili and her children were all by her side.
Georgia revealed she was expecting a baby boy to People in September 2023. She also told the outlet that she thinks her late mom would be excited to become a grandma. “I’m very excited to become a mother. I have an amazing mother to prepare me for these years to come,” she said. “I think maybe at first it would be kind of shocking, because I am her baby, but after that, she’d be the most excited grandmother-to-be.”
A source subsequently told PEOPLE magazine for a January 31, 2024, report that Georgia had given birth “earlier” that month.
Sophia Fualaau
About two years after Mary Kay’s death, Vili became a dad for the third time. Georgia announced the news in a private Instagram post in November 2022, per People. “Hi Sophia, I’m your big sister! You’re so beautiful, I can’t wait to watch you grow. I’ll be right here by your side no matter what ! I love you,” she wrote. No other details about Sophia, including her mother’s identity have been revealed.
