Letourneau told Barbara Walters that her plans to marry her ex-student, 21-year-old Vili Fualaau, haven't changed. She said they always planned to marry and being away in prison for over seven years did not change that decision. Letourneau and Fualaau already have two daughters together.
They Emotionally Bonded
Barbara Walters asked Letourneau to discuss what was going on in her life during the time that her relationship first began with Fualaau. Letourneau explained that she was emotionally overwhelmed trying to balance her marriage that was falling apart, a full-time job, and her four children.
It was during this difficult time that she developed a friendship with Fualaau, when he was one of her elementary-school students. She told Walters that she began spending more time with Fualaau, helping him develop his gift for art. Towards the end of the school year an incident between them changed everything.
How Did It Happen?
"He just came straight out and said, 'Would you ever have an affair?'" Letourneau said. She told herself, "Don't look him in the eyes," knowing that she felt an attraction toward him.Letourneau said she felt Fualaau's flirtations were different from other kids who develop crushes on their teachers. She added, that she felt a real love towards him, but, "I was absolutely sure that there was nothing that he could do to persuade me to have an intimate relationship..." Soon afterward, the two were having a sexual relationship.
Letourneau admitted to knowing that what she was doing wasn't right, quickly adding, "But Vili and I loved each other, and still do."
Arrested and Charged With Statutory Rape
Letourneau's affair with Fualaau had grown from emotional bonding to an active sexual relationship by the summer of 1996. They were having sex everywhere - in Letourneau's home, in the classroom, in her car - sometimes several times a day.They failed to use birth control and became pregnant by Fualaau. She told Walters that her hopes were to, "put in for my maternity leave and retire," but her husband discovered a love letter that she had written to Fualaau. He confronted the boy who admitted he was sleeping with his wife. A family member of the husband, contacted authorities and the Seattle police arrested Letourneau.
Letourneau said that she was unaware of the seriousness of her actions. "I was imagining there's probably some community service hours, for situations like this, and I actually didn't think that I needed an attorney even," she said.
Letourneau was charged with a child rape, and served six months of the seven and a half year prison sentence she received. The short sentence was a pre-arranged plea agreement based on Letourneau's willingness to attend psychiatric counseling, stay away from Fualaau, and to give up custody of her new born child to Fualaau's mother.
She Couldn't Stay Away
After she was released, a counselor told Letourneau she was forbidden to see any of her children for six months. She said that she knew at that moment that she would not refrain from seeing her kids and would be returning to jail. She felt she had nothing to lose by seeing Fualauu again.By February, she was pregnant again and back in prison, serving out the rest of her sentence after the police caught her and Fualaau in a "steamy" parked car.
Letourneau told Walters that she never believed she would go to prison for so long.
Her husband, in the meantime, was filing for divorce and moving to Alaska with their four children.
Letourneau's Release from Prison
Fualaau, now 21, asked the court to lift its no-contact order against Letourneau and the request was granted.Letourneau, now 42, is a registered sex offender and unemployed, living with friends. She and Fualaau see each other and spend time with their children, who are still with their grandmother.
As to the future of the couple, Letourneau told Walters, "I just can't imagine traveling and seeing something without him, learning together, being with him, supporting him for what he would like to do in this life."
After the interview, Walter's told co-host, John Stossel, that she observed Letourneau and Fualaau together, and their interaction seemed like that of teacher and student, with Letourneau encouraging Fualaau to put his best foot forward.
