Barbara Walters interviewed Mary Kay Letourneau on Friday night. She’s the former teacher who (at age 34) statutory raped her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau. She already had four children of her own before she became pregnant with Vili’s child. Mary Kay subsequently served seven years in prison. She and Vili are still together. She’s 53, and he’s 31. They have two teenage daughters and have been married since May 2006 (when Vili was 21). He works as a DJ (under the name DJ Headline), and she found employment as a paralegal. Mary Kay and Vili sat down with Barbara Walters to discuss their upcoming tenth wedding anniversary. And because two of these parties are desperate for attention, and I’m not talking about Vili.
Highlights from this interview include Mary Kay blaming the media for what happened to her. Mary Kay would also love to go back to teaching even though she’s still a registered sex offender. She’s already found some extra work by tutoring and giving piano lessons. Lordy. Some excerpts:
Mary Kay is delusional “I don’t know if enough time will pass where it will take away what the media did to our story. Because it was so big, and they ran with it so fast. There’s a story of us that has a life of its own. But it’s not our story.”
Mary Kay on their marriage: “If it wasn’t strong enough in the beginning, it wouldn’t have carried through those years.”
Vili on their marriage: “It was a huge relief to actually get married … [after] just going through all those years and then having so many questions and them not being answered.”
Mary Kay wants off the sex offender list: “Recently I said, ‘It’s been 10 years, why don’t I lift that?’ There’s a process, there’s a form, you take it to court and then they grant it if it looks like it should be granted.”
Mary Kay says all her kids are close: “When we were first married they were very involved in our home. All of our holidays were always together. And they’re very close with their sisters.”
Vili feels differently: “It’s an awkward feeling, for sure, to be close in age with someone technically your stepson or stepdaughter.”
Mary Kay on how their daughters found out: “There was never a sit-down chat: ‘Now is the time we’re going to talk to our children about this. They seemed to already know … because they grew up with it. There’s just never been a, ‘Wow, we better explain.'”
Vili doesn’t want his daughters to date: “The reason for me telling them that was just from, out of experience. A relationship could lead to something that you think you wanted back then. You don’t really want it, maybe, years later … I don’t support younger kids being married or having a relationship with someone older. I don’t support it.”
[From ABC]
Mary Kay and Vili’s two daughters also appear in the interview. The girls attend the same school district where Mary Kay used to teach when she committed statutory rape. The girls figured out what happened via Google and gossip from their school friends. Awful.
Mary Kay still doesn’t seem to understand why what she did was wrong. She lacks a conscience, and Vili appears miserable during this interview. He does admit being depressed at his lack of “guidance” while raising two young children for years on his own. Get this — when Vili talked about his depression, Barbara responded that a “loving wife” and a 10-year marriage is “more than a lot of people have.” That is so messed up! Vili is a victim, his youth and life were stolen from him, and he has no idea what a healthy relationship looks like. I feel for him and his daughters. No pity at all for Mary Kay.
You can watch pieces of the interview on the ABC website.
Here are some photos of Mary Kay and Vili in 2006.
Photos courtesy of Getty; screencap courtesy of Heidi Gutman/ABC
Yeccch.
Just the way she preens and poses–she really thinks she did nothing wrong.
Go away.
Agree. I am glad Celebitchy watched that crazy interview. I couldn’t even stand the promo’s.
She had sex with a 12 year old and is a pedophile. Now this man is a mess and has two children with her. She should NEVER be allowed to teach children again. I would hate to see her do this again when he gets too old.
Though I do wonder what happened to her other 4 children.
How is she even tutoring or giving piano lessons?
I believe part of the back story was that Mary Kay’s father was a teacher and did the same thing to/with one of his female students who was around 15 or 16 (i.e. had sex with her). As for Vili raising the children while MK was in jail (where she rightly deserved to be), I believe he was living with his mother who helped raise the girls too. The grandmother had custody of the girls at one point while Mary Kay was in jail (Vili would have been under 18 at the time). I remember reading something about how when they got married, they had just gotten custody of their daughters back from the grandmother.
And yes, Mary Kay does sound delusional. She takes no responsibility for what she did and how she selfishly twisted a young boy’s life around. And I seriously doubt that her older children are all that close to her now. The father took them and moved (back) to Alaska when Mary Kay went to jail, so I don’t see how they could have been spending all their holidays with her. She is a sick person and a true narcissist IMO. She doesn’t even see other people.
I read somewhere that they are in touch, they have a relationship with their mother, who knows, maybe not all of them.
I commend their father, he is probably a very forgiving person. I have no idea what they think of her mother’s husband, or if they talk to the younger girls.
He says it’s what he wanted, but I bet she held marriage over his head, saying “they” would win and be right if they didn’t get married. In her mind, because they’ve been married ten years and have 2 kids, it makes it OK. It’s not OK, and I sense he feels pretty trapped and has been manipulated in that way, owned since he was 12. This woman is sick. I hope they later divorce, he gets therapy, and realizes he was totally robbed. And writes a book, haha. Case in point: “The reason for me telling them [not to date] was just from, out of experience. A relationship could lead to something that you think you wanted back then. You don’t really want it, maybe, years later …”
The fact that she didn’t tell her children what happened and then just sent them on their merry way IN THE SAME F-ING SCHOOL DISTRICT is insanity. Just … What?!
I know that in some states, if a man rapes a woman and impregnates her, he doesn’t have full parental rights to the child that was conceived via rape.
I feel like by getting pregnant and having parental authority over the children, she continues to have power over Vili.
@wiffie you hit the nail on the head. Vili’s comment about thinking you want something when you’re young and realizing that you don’t and that he doesn’t support a relationship between a child and an adult speaks SO many volumes. I truly feel sorry for him, because in a lot of ways, he is still being abused; he doesn’t know any better because she has had him in her grips since he was only 12 years old, and their relationship comes off very much like she is his captor or something. This is the outcome of no one really saving the victim of sexual abuse. No one whisked him away from the lady who took advantage of him, and she manipulated him into thinking they had a mature, romantic relationship from the time he was a child.
This is an incredibly sad story. For all we know, he might be staying with her because she puts pressure on him or makes him think it is somehow his fault that she went to jail and is labeled as a sex offender. I can’t imagine that she would ever regain the ability to teach.
I also couldn’t bring myself to watch the interview. I lived in WA about five years back and they did a local interview with them then and it was just so gross to watch. Did he have contact with her while she was in jail? And if so who was letting him do that?!
So relieved she’s only had daughters as I would fear she’d find sons attractive. You have to worry about her daughters and relationships though. What are they seeing that’s even remotely functional and healthy?
She has a look in her eyes which screams, “Certifiable”.
This^^^! The lights may be on, but is anybody home? I did actually watch the video just to see if there was any redeeming factors for her, since he married her. What I found was a continued disconnect and denial. At one point she actually said something like “Why couldn’t it have just ended with a kiss?” as if she was the victim…just yech! She must have a borderline personality or something.
I really hope their daughters are as well adjusted as the appear, though.
The look is his eyes screams, “Help!”
couldn’t have said it better
She has always come off as batshit crazy and I truly believe that she is. This relationship points out so much that is wrong with our country. 1) WHY didn’t anyone council Vili or move him as far away from possible from her? 2) Why do we live in a country where a pedophile can legally marry their victim once they come of age? Age of consent should not be enough. We know enough about psychology today to know how deeply damaged Vili must be because of the abuse he was subjected to by a sick, sad woman. It should be assumed that he wouldn’t be able to make a sound decision when it came to choosing to marry the woman who raped him. I wonder if he truly knows that he doesn’t have to remain with her. His comments would lead one to believe that he knows that what happened between them was wrong, and I wonder if he knows that it is ok to say that and leave her crazy ass.
His mother was a single mom and largely absent (too busy with work) to be a real authority figure. I think they did try suing the school board for not protecting him but it didn’t work out. This was while MK was in jail. It’s beyond obvious how much regret he has about it all.
She is a pedophile with a capital P. Hope he wakes up soon and leaves her sorry butt. He seems totally miserable. Cannot blame him at all, he was a kid.
Ugh. Why is BW giving this awful person air time?
You’re so right, Megan. This is a disgusting topic to revisit as if it should be at all considered socially acceptable or even taboo. It is straight up CRIMINAL what this woman did and I think Vili is a sad, damaged person who may only still be with her because she continues to manipulate him. There should be no “10 years later” update. Barbara Walters and ABC are pathetic and gross for this.
shame on barbara, this is despicable
Not just air time, but reminding him he should feel lucky because of a ten year marriage and his wife.
I am actually glad that it aired and I am glad that I saw it. I feel that it gave Vili more of a voice. You can tell by his answers and by his body language that he wants to escape. I hope that because of ABC airing this interview that he finally gets the help and resources that he needs to get his life together away from her. I also hope that more people realize how much abused boys desperately need help and guidance just as much as, or sometimes more than, abused girls.
This woman is probably not a narcissist but yeah, she’s definitely delusional. But that’s like a lot of pedophiles who have those desires and make endless arguments for them instead of fighting the urge. These are the people who interchange the word lust for love. They either don’t understand that it’s abuse or just plain refuse to acknowledge how damaging it is when they act on their sexual desires.
I agree, yecccch. Poor Vili looked like a hostage the whole time. Seriously, watching the interview was like watching a bad scene in a hostage movie. He looks so miserable and caught. He couldn’t find a positive answer to a single one of Baba’s stupid, clueless questions about Mary K. and the marriage. He clearly loves his daughters, but they’re not far from the age that siblings of Vili would be.
And Mary Kay is repulsive, the way she contrives a simpering, little-girl persona and makes cutesy faces to suggest how innocent she is. The gist of the whole thing was: *We just fell in love – don’t hate us for that! It was only natural, and our 10 years of marriage should bear that out. The fact that he was 12? That is justified by the longevity of our marriage.*
And meanwhile, Vili looks like a small bird caught in the hand of a giant.
Wow, that’s surprising that people hire her as a tutor. Returning to teaching sounds like a terrible idea–what kind of delusion would make her think otherwise?
Like parents sending their kids to sleep over unsupervised at Michael Jackson’s house–and he was never convicted of anything! Sounds again like there’s something wrong with the (“star”struck?) parents in that neighborhood. Won’t end well.
On that topic, I’ve been reading about Wade Robson’s lawsuit against the Jackson estate–Robson who defended MJ in one of the other lawsuits. Such a complicated affair, it doesn’t seem like anyone came out unscathed.
Absolute truth. It sound hollow and stupid to say abuse is messed up, but it really is. The long term effects of abuse are really complex, and I think that Vili shows a lot of these long term effects by seeming so incredibly unhappy and saying things that make him sound as if he feels trapped. In Wade Robson’s case, the fact that he only felt confident enough to speak out about the abuse he sustained after MJ died seems to show that he was made to feel guilty or wrong about telling the truth. People tend to cling to their abusers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vili feels so trapped because Mary Kay guilts him into believing their relationship and the fact that she went to jail is somehow all his fault. This is a seriously disturbing story and I’m really disgusted to see ABC and Barbara Walters trying to garner ratings by rehashing this.
The Crazy is front and center on this one.
She always had and still has serious crazy face. First family – count your blessings she’s moved on. Second family – good luck to you.
His response to his daughters dating is very telling.
His demeanor through the whole interview was so dark and sad.
I agree. He sounded very trapped. I feel so sorry for him. He went through this terrible thing, was left without guidance after and winded back up in the same troubled space.
I didn’t see the interview, but that is sad to hear. People just don’t think that boys/men are negatively affected by being preyed on when the predator is female. This situation is just sick.
@jinni I have a daughter who will turn 12 next month and I cannot imagine feeling any less outraged if I had a son and this happened to him. What this sick woman has stolen from him is irreplaceable. I truly feel for him.
I thought so, too. His body language and his eyes seemed to be saying that he wished he could be anywhere else.
What she did should be straight up rape. He was a child for god’s sake! This woman is sick and I feel oh so very sorry for this man whose childhood was stolen and tainted by this POS.
10 years? Big friggin’ whoop. People in very dysfunctional relationships can stay in them because of their own issues of codependency. My guess is that he’s thinking of his daughters and wanting them to have a two parent, stable home, but that poor guy got taken advantage of, simple as that. She holds all the power in the relationship and he never had the guidance he needed to coparent without tying himself so intimately to this wacko.
I thought he was so uncomfortable and miserable. It’s like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like waiting for her to die or go off the handle and end up in psych ward
I was quite struck by those comments. I think he is resigned to the relationship because of his daughters. He seems to thoroughly lack any attachment to MKL.
I agree. The younger child is a junior in high school this year, I suspect he is trying to hang on until both girls are out of the house and then he’ll run. At least I hope he does. I can’t fathom being molested as a child (and she blames him for putting the moves on her) and then being saddled with the molestor in a marriage. Add on the fact that jerks like Babs call it a “love story”, and it is beyond disgusting.
Of course, Barbara Walters idolizes Roman Polanski and Woody Allen too. She seems to have an affinity for people who are accused of sexually abusing children.
Enui wasn’t she also the one who said that Corey Feldman (or was it Haims?) was damaging the movie business by talking about pedophilia in it? I’m almost certain it was her. Barbara really seems to defend pedophiles at every turn.
I have to admit, at first I was dismissive, like “Well, YOU did it!” Then I thought about it more and now I’m really sad for him. He seems like he’s accepted his fate, really loves his daughters and wants to protect them from anything like that happening to them. Maybe it took him awhile to realize how truly awful the situation is but feels like there’s nothing he can do but be there for his kids.
He has sad eyes.
It’s not really something he did, though, you know? If he’s been in her clutches since he was prepubescent, he really only knows what she’s shown him or impressed upon him, as far as what’s normal and healthy in a relationship, and probably even that not only was there nothing wrong with a 34yo being with a 12yo, but that she shouldn’t have been punished for it. What else could he know about normal teenage years leading into normal adult years and healthy relationships along the way if he never had a chance to experience them himself? I have a hard time believing anyone would accept this mindset (“YOU did it”) if the sexes were reversed and this was a 12yo girl who was impregnated by her male teacher, only to grow up and marry him. There really was no hope for him if those trusted to keep him safe from predators didn’t do their job.
It is not a question of WILL hire her; it is a question of CAN hire her. No school district can and those laws will never change in her favor.
She is just too creepy for words.
Ugh, this makes me queasy.
I’m still disgusted by her, I don’t care if they’ve been married for ten years. She took away his childhood. She has children, you’d think she’d understand that.
She should remain on the sexual offenders list because she IS a sexual predator. 12 YEARS OLD this kid was. Absolutely, positively revolting. Disgusting. Inexcusable. Just because she continues to trap him in this unequal relationship that he’s clearly miserable in, she thinks all should be forgiven? I can’t even find the words.
My thoughts exactly GNAT. And to CleaK downthread, yes she is still victimizing him. I one hundred percent believe he feels trapped and is only hanging on for the sake of his daughters. His life was robbed by this pedophile sociopath and I hope some day he can unentangle himself from this witch and begin the journey to healing.
I agree. She’s revolting. I can’t watch the video since I’m at work but that last bit about his daughters dating … sounds about right. He’s exactly my age and the thought of “dating” some 34 year old dude 19 YEARS AGO … I can’t. The woman needs to stay on that list permanently. Just because you victimize someone enough so they will eventually marry you doesn’t mean you didn’t commit a f*cking crime. TWELVE! I’m younger than she was at the time and the thought of even dating a 20-year-old gives me the creeps. Wretched woman.
And Barbara Walters should be ashamed of herself.
I completely agree. Just because she married him doesn’t mean she stopped victimizing him-quite the opposite in fact. I don’t see this great and enduring love story that she is shilling; I see an unrepentant predator and a trapped and depressed victim. She has no remorse and that alone will keep her on the registry (where she rightfully belongs.)
I another tidbit, he was quoted as speaking about how difficult those early years were, as father 2x’s over and barely into his teen years. She stole his life away and my heart breaks for this poor guy.
No kidding. A while back a college guy (i.e. legal adult) was hitting on me when I was a grad student and I was like, “Um, no. Go away, child. You can’t even get into bars yet.” I can’t even imagine if he was an ACTUAL child. Yuck yuck yuck. WTF was/is wrong with her?
Marrying him and having his kids was the ultimate manipulation. It trapped him and gave her more power over him. He has been a puppet his entire adult life…immasculated, developmentally stunted, and never allowed to become a man.
Exactly what his pedophile wife wanted. She has control and he is an emotional child, trapped at the age the abuse began.
One nice comment their two girls are very pretty and from what I can gather happy young women.
Now the not so nice comment. Mary Kay you raped and took advantage of a young child. Yes the media will jump all over that. This young man was forced into a situation he was not mentally ready to deal with. Becoming a parent and missing out on his teen years.
Also MK and Vili are selfish in actually raising and
sending their daughters to the same city and school where all this happened. The girls found out through local gossip!
Finally, Barbara Walters you really need to retire
Blame yourself and not the media
Barbara was so wrong in that interview. Like when she was justifying Mary Kay’s sick pedo ways by saying “Vili, you seem very mature to me.” Well, yeah, the poor man has his childhood ripped from him and was a single (MK in prison) father of TWO by age 15. Baba is disgusting. Mary Kay is sick. Vili is obviously still a victim. Poor Vili.
Uh, of course he’s mature. He’s a 31 year old man, Barbara. Did you know him when he was 12?
i think i can understand why it will be difficult for Vili to leave, or not as easy for Vili to leave like people hope he would. he has been groomed from a young age by MKL (i don’t care what she might say otherwise). elementary school is where people form their mindset and viewpoints of the world (it’s not for nothing that those missionaries boast “give me a child blah blah and i will blah blah).
another thing, Vili would probably not have access to proper counseling as an underage hetero male victim (counseling for adult males are rare even now, i shudder to think what it was like in those years).
in addition to lack of counselling, he would be thrown in the deep end rather quickly. yes his mother helped raise his child, but i think he would still feel responsible. on top of that i would think that he’s been raised right and maybe got/heard talks like “nice boys don’t get girls pregnant be responsible talk”. unfortunately there’s not enough talk in the world to cover what he should do if he was forced into that situation.
compounding that, as he grew older he would be surrounded by people exactly like Barbara Walters, who would say “oh you have a loving wife”, “you have two lovely daughters”, “you have a long marriage”, “at least you’re a guy and you’re not the one pregnant”, “well done boy” (for getting some mrs anderson action”. i have no doubt that these well-intentioned words further drove him into a corner. and it seems that if nobody would help him out, he wouldn’t know where to get out or how to get out.
he simply doesn’t know any better. yes he’s 31 years old, and yes he has responsibilities for his daughters, but maybe he just doesn’t know. i fear nobody tells him these things, and he misses out on a few key life lessons to deal with these things.
so while i agree that their daughters are being placed in a situation that is not healthy for them, i don’t agree with your statement lumping MK and Vili together as equally selfish.
Vili was and still is a victim in this relationship. i doubt he has a voice in this relationship. and i don’t thinkhe can’t just “man up”. he needs help so that he can help his daughters.
I am so beyond done with Walters as well. She’s long since lost any credibility in my mind. She only chases the big celebrities or anyone else who’ll give her big ratings. This whole situation with that awful former teacher and that boy is sickening.
In the interview, both of them mentioned the fact that Villi would make inappropriate comments to her back in the 2nd grade. I can’t help but wonder if he was sexually abused before Mary Kay got her hooks into him. A normal teacher would have seen his behavior as a point of concern, and they would have pulled in the Guidance Counselor or Social Worker. But she’s psychotic, so she saw it as positive attention. Shame on her for even hinting at wanting to go back to teaching.
This is wrong on so many levels!! Poor guy.
HELL NO! Why is a anyone giving this PEDOPHILE, the time day? SHE HAD SEX WITH HER TWELVE YEAR OLD STUDENT! SHE HAD SEX WITH HER TWELVE YEAR OLD STUDENT! In what world is that okay? I don’t care if they are together now or not. At twelve, I was still playing with Barbie dolls!!!! And my respect for Barabara Walters, of which, there wasn’t much to begin with, is now, totally gone! MKL is a sick, sick, woman, and let’s just hope that she is NEVER taken off the sex offender registry, and that she can NEVER, EVER, teach children again….In my eyes, she should still be in jail!!! You can tell, she doesn’t even think she did anything wrong…the crazy in her, just leaps out of the pictures….
Unfortunately, male victims of rape aren’t even seen as victims especially when their rapist is female. A large portion of society believes that males can’t be victimized especially by women and that males are always willing to engage in any sexual act with any female, so there is no way that a guy can be forced to have sex by a woman. It’s a screwed up mentality which is why guys don’t report when they are raped by women because they will have to endure people telling them how lucky they are or how the wish some woman would “rape” them. It’s sad
I was going to say, if she were a man, and it had been a 12 year old girl, would he be asking to be off the sexual predators list so he could go back to teaching? Hell no, lady, you keep away from children for the rest of your screwed up life. Selfish, manipulative, sick delusional pervert.
Too true. Just think back to Chris Brown’s proud admission of losing his virginity when he was 9, which he said was admirable to the other boys in the community he grew up in because it meant you were a “player” and it gave you the chance to work on your skills and become “a beast in bed.” Sadly, he was raped but he doesn’t or won’t understand that because… well, because rape is a terrible thing to happen to anybody but only women can be raped, right?
I feel bad for Vili. What he said about his daughters dating seemed to indicate how he really feels about his situation. I think MKL is an abusive person towards him, mostly emotionally but it’s obvious that Vili doesn’t know who or what else to go to.
@tifzlan: That reminds me of when Lil’ Wayne was on Kimmel and he talked about how he “lost his virginity” to an older girl when he was eleven. The story is that this girl just pulled him in a closest, cut off the lights, and pulled down his pants without his consent. When Jimmy asked if he was negatively affected even to this day by what happened Wayne said yes. And than Jimmy bring up that Wayne has a four month old son and asks if Wayne’s son is till a virgin s a joke and Kimmel and the audience laugh like a baby losing its is so funny. All the while Wayne does one of those nervous laughs throughout that whole section of the interview, you can tell he’s uncomfortable.
The fact that he just disregarded that Wayne just told him that he’s still dealing with the affects of being raped as a child, but then to joke about his baby son being a virgin just goes to show how little seriousness is given to guys that are raped or molested.
Here’s the link to the interview in question. It starts at 2:56 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VFGQK1m8Qw
Jesus. Jimmy Kimmel. What a try-hard non-talent. That anecdote says it all.
I remember a girl in college stating that her boyfriend lost his virginity at 9 to an 11 year old babysitter. She acted like he was a stud for starting so early at “seducing” an older woman. There is a double standard when it comes to this with the majority of the society. I’ve heard so many men say they wished they had a hot teacher in middle or high school who would have seduced them. That ‘hot’ teacher in florida comes to mind (i forget her name) who had sex with the 15 year old. Soo many men stated they wished she had taught them.
Oh my yes, we had a teacher here in my home town, a person who I grew up with who was having sex with her students. Same age 13 and 14. I had so many arguments with people who thought it was ok because they were boys. It is not ok, they are children and she is sick! She lost her career and had to move to the other side of the country. Her husband stuck with her they are still together. I don’t understand – and they have 3 daughters 2 of whom were the same age as the boys and going to the same school. How aweful is that?
Also I have a son who just turned 11 and one who is turning 12 next month. I couldn’t imagine something like this happening to them ..
Exactly this. Actually there was an SNL skit on Saturday that played on this very theme. One of the actors was playing a teen boy that had sex with his female teacher. They had him in court and were asking him questions like “How has this hurt you?” and he would reply “Oh mostly my arms are just hurt from all the high fives I have been getting.” Just a lot of jokes based on the idea that if a teen boy’s teacher has sex with him–the boy is happy about it. I was really disappointed in the skit. The last thing we need is to play into that idea–because rape is not ok–no matter WHO is involved.
I am horrified that anyone would allow that sick woman to teach their kids! WTH??
Also–note how she mentions having the charged wiped from her record? She says it as if it is still on her record just because she hasn’t gotten around to having it removed. As if it is that simple!
The fact that they have been married for 10 years doesn’t make the crime LESS terrible–if possible, it makes it WORSE.
Ok, don’t jump down my neck, this is a genuine question. Are there studies on the effects of statutory rape on heterosexual teenage boys? I’ve seen some on girls just not on boys. I ask because I have heard a lot of guys have that “high five” reaction to hearing stories like this. In fact a lot of the comment sites where people are seriously upset by this tend to be female not male. Now to be clear, I definitely see a problem with the exploitation of her position as his teacher. And I am not arguing for a law to be changed, she deserves what she got. But I am wondering if we as women are not projecting our own experience with statutory rape onto the male experience. Perhaps boys do experience sexuality differently at that age (putting on my helmet now)
That Jimmy Kimmel video is pretty disturbing. Joking about things that obviously weren’t funny to Wayne. So dismissive of what he went through. And then to joke about his 4-month old son being a virgin is unbelievably gross. Wow.
That Lil Wayne story (and the reaction to it) is just sad 🙁
It’s true that male victims of female sexual assault are almost never taken seriously. It’s like a big joke.
Yes, there are studies on male sexual assault victims and they usually end up having problems even when the relationship was a statutory rape (the male child didn’t fight it). Long-term affects are:
1. Regardless of statutory or violent rape, male victims are at greater risk of having mental health problems, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression;
2. Greater risk of alcoholism and drug abuse;
3. Greater risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts/attempts;
4. Problems in intimate relationships;
5. Underachievement
6. Pressure to prove his manhood physically and sexually
7. Sense of being an inadequate man
8. Sense of lost power, control, and confidence to his manhood
9. Problems with closeness and intimacy
10. Sexual problems
Take a poll of how many men you know think it is “okay” to have sex with an older female teacher if they were 9-15 or their sons to do so. The results will shock you (unless you already know what they will be).
I don’t think we as women are projecting our own experience with statutory rape on male experience, I don’t have any study to support this opinion, but based on my years of working with mostly male colleagues and living with my husband, I think that men just don’t ever want to admit to being victims or traumatized by any event, and hence the high-fives reaction to statutory rape by a female teacher.
They don’t generally talk to each other about their feelings and how hurt they were in some situation, they will talk about that time they were for example mugged at gunpoint, maybe even admit that they were scared, but I think that most of them just won’t get into deep discussion about how they feel traumatized by that event, that they felt humiliated, less of a man, depressed etc. They might talk about it with their girlfriends, wives etc, but among men there is always that need to be a bigger and better and manlier… man than every other man in the world and admitting a weakness, to put it that way, just causes teasing and mocking.
This is probably not true for every man in the world, but I generally believe it is true. So in conclusion I’m more inclined to believe that men are just as traumatized by statutory rape, maybe even more than women because of this widespread opinion that men can’t be raped so they don’t have the support women have, it’s just that they put on this manly front with each other and in public, joke it off, and just figure their feelings by themselves in their heads or with few of their closest people.
The Other Pinky –
I see where you’re coming from but that’s really dusting the wrong crop. What’s being said is that society is creating an atmosphere that makes it impossible for boys to be honest about the affect that being molested has on them without emasculating them.
Sex when it involves children and adults, regardless of gender formula, is still a mismatch of goals and outcomes.
Children approach adults with complete and total vulnerability, requiring of adults that all basic needs be met or they could, quite literally, not survive. Food, shelter, clothing, etc. On a primitive level they know that it is crucial that they please their mentors or likely fail in the world. Adult pedophiles approach the relationship with children primarily with an itch that needs scratching and all the other nuances of what they say they want is a veneer to excuse their lust.
Children who grow up after abuse like this usually feel that their worth is the sex they give. They confuse sex with love because they may have never known love without that expectation.
someone on my fb page was fighting me over this. he said every male was “jealous” of vili and only women find this story gross.
it’s this kind of attitude that keeps victims from getting help
She pegged him down at 13; he had nowhere to go and nobody to turn to in his own life and she made herself seemingly indispensable to him. Even if he wants to leave he pretty much can’t because he doesn’t know a different life.
She sucks.
It is even worse. 7. She had her eye on him as a 7 year old. She was his second grade teacher, and then again when he was in 6th grade. During that entire time she talked about him to other teachers.
she started grooming him as a 7 year old, and then coming on to him at 12. She is disgusting
His eyes in those pics… he looks so tortured and sad.
I didn’t watch the interview but if what you are saying is true then that guy needs counselling and therapy. The image I am getting from this is that he is trapped and can’t fend for himself without help. This is preying on an innocent child. I vote for NEVER removing Mary Kay from the sex offender’s list.
His response to his daughters dating an older guy makes it seem like he never wanted this life for himself either and now is forced to live it. He is helpless and that is why he is staying with her. And doing this interview. This is terrible.
My Question is : Is she scouting for a reality show?
Yikes. I did not know that. He really sounds trapped and like he wants out and as someone said up thread, his eyes look sad. She really needs to stay on the sex offenders list.
Child sexual abuse is so awful and very confusing for the victims. This kind of abuse is so complicated. The child is thinking – This is what adults do when they love each other, I love her so…
And then he married her. Of course he married her! To not marry her would mean he had to confront what was done to him and admit that it was wrong. But how could it be wrong when he had his two beautiful girls?
It can take decades for people to process childhood sexual trauma. It’s very common for people who are date raped to continue to date their rapist. “I slept with him, I must really like him” translates to “I have to really like him because the alternative is just too horrible.”
He married his rapist. Most likely at her insistence because he hadn’t come to terms with what was done to him. This was pure denial.
That poor poor boy. He is married to his rapist.
Yuck!!! There is no hope for Mary-Kay, but what the hell is wrong with Barbara Walters. She has seriously gone off the deep end. When she picked Amal Clooney as most fascinating person last year because she snagged the aging movie star,( that was pretty much her words not mine- minus the aging part) I thought she was off but harmless, now she make this out to seem a great love story! That is not harmless. Whatever it is shouldn’t be splayed around the media to seem normal, because it is so far from that. Barbara needs to retire.
I heard that Barbara is shopping a reality series about them…don’t know if it’s true or not. You know, just the lives of a modern American family, who met when the woman was the teacher of the twelve year old boy! What a love story! The woman got preggo, went to jail and the babies were raised by their thirteen year old dad! Yup, just your typical story! WTF is wrong with BW….and WTF is wrong with the world????
So being a victim at 12 to MKL wasn’t bad enough, now as an adult–he should also be victimized by Barbara Walters.
This is so sad.
Really, any trained mental health professional would have a field day with BW’s comments. What a stupid thing to say. Even if one of the conditions of getting the interview was not portraying them negatively, she could have asked about WHY he was depressed, instead of pointing to the reason for his depression as a cure for it. Smh
I watched most of this, it was appalling. She seems to revel in the attention and thinks she did nothing wrong. She’s a predator, and how dare she think it should all be wiped away. I felt incredibly sorry for him, and all the kids caught in this.
I am confused. If she has been married to Vili Faulaau for ten years (in such a state of total bliss if she is to be believed), why does she still appear to use husband #1’s last name (LeTourneau)? Unless of course that is the name that made her famous and she doesn’t want anyone to forget how she was the focus of a media storm all those years ago?? A lot of people remember the name LeTourneau, so she keeps using it. Good on Mr. LeTourneau for getting their four children the hell out of there and away to Alaska. But Mary Kay still wants to show everyone how normal and not predatory she is/was, so she stayed in the same area. Very sick.
Apparently, her former husband has changed his name after he moved with their 4 kids to Alaska.
And I don;t believe the story that her previous kids are involved in her current life.
She should never, ever be allowed in the classroom with young children ever again. There’s something really wrong with her! I She blamed the media for their story blowing up, yet there she sits, exposing her daughters to that media. That’s on her.
One good thing about this interview is that now people who forgot about MK or were too young to understand at the time see her sick, scary face and see the damage that she has caused.
Bad thing: now everyone knows what the daughters look like as well. Will they ever be able to move away from this and have a normal life after being pawns for so long in MKs sick little game?
Oh and MK saying Vili was “trouble!” Bitch, have several seats.
Yep. My guess is there’s NO WAY those two girls are ever gonna be well-adjusted. Not happenin’.
So she’s raising her daughters to think it’s OK for a grown woman to have sex with a 12-year-old boy… What kind of mother is that?
It sounds as though the guy stays because of his children. He is quite aware that what she did was wrong or else he wouldn’t have said what he said when asked about his daughters dating. He realizes that he wasn’t ready, which is why 34 year old teachers aren’t supposed to have sex with 12 year old students, no matter how physically mature they look. They’re not ready for what our society expects.
I wonder what will happen once his children are established out on their own.
I really think it’s some kind of financial advantage, although I don’t know what. He lived with his mother while MK was in jail and his mom had custody of his girls. She sued the district for the “assault” (her words) meanwhile publicly supporting the relationship. If I remember correctly, they lived on welfare before that. When MK got out of jail he was jobless and “really good at video games”. MK must have gotten a deal for interviews and whatnot, and that was presumably his only source of income. It seems he’s just kind of a loser, and always choses the path of least resistance.
I think it’s a little unfair to call him a loser. He was groomed by a pedophile, and didn’t have the support of adults in his life to guide and protect him. He got stuck in a very bad situation, and I think he’s done the best he is capable of.
Or, you know, crushing depression.
“When MK got out of jail he was jobless and “really good at video games”. It seems he’s just kind of a loser, and always choses the path of least resistance.”
Wow. Way harsh.
He was a KID when she got out of jail. A kid who had been dragged through the courts and the media. Then he became a dad and seems like he has felt stuck with this woman for the sake of his daughters ever since. I suppose he could have risen above all that and done something more with his life—but after the trauma he underwent at 12, I can’t really blame him if he isn’t the most well adjusted, ambitious guy out there.
@ava7: Wow, an 18/19 year old boy (who never even finished high school) was jobless and “good at playing video games”. That’s not a loser, that’s the only age appropriate response we’ve heard from this guy. Big shock that a guy that was raped by his teacher at 12, a father of TWO of her children at 13 and then 14, has had some problems.
It’s amazing how being raped at twelve derails your life and saps your motivation, isn’t it? He not a “loser” ava7, he’s a victim, and count your lucky stars she or her kind didn’t happen to you at 12.
If this was a 13 year old girl who had been raped by her teacher, would Walters have interviewed the “happy family” and acted like nothing wrong was done? This male child was failed by the system because he was seen as a normal boy with raging hormones, not a child who did not know better. She is a sexual predator and if she had been male would still be in jail. He had no strong family and she clearly took advantage of him and still seems to control him.
He has no idea what a normal relationship is and acts like he is similar to someone suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Someone in a strong marriage does not become depressed or alcoholic. But Walters seems to have missed this while touting this “relationship”. She did not have an “affair” with this child, she raped him. And Walters should be ashamed of herself and all the other media who are touting this as a “love story”.
+100000.
Barbara Walters should be ashamed. And if that reality show mess that someone wrote about up thread is true, I hope Walters get dragged by every rape victim support group and every media outlet for trying to profit off of this guy’s abuse.
Your post nailed it. And Walters, and anyone else who OK’d this, should be ashamed of themselves.
Agree so much. Shame on Barbara Walters.
This has been bothering me all day. What was BW thinking? Her portraying this as some kind of love story is truly sick.
Yes. Stockholm syndrome is a perfect term for this.
Could not agree more. Walters needs to hang it up now. It was disgraceful of her to pull this. If some woman did to one of my sons what MK did to this poor guy, I would freaking hate her forever. And no way should MK lose her pedo status. Ewww. I need to go wash my eyes out now.
Could you imagine if the roles were reversed and Mary was a man who went after a young girl? If that were the case, then these two would be allowed within 50 miles of a Barbara Walters interview.
As a matter of fact, they (most likely) wouldn’t be allowed within 50 miles of EACH OTHER.
This is just so sad. I haven’t watched the video, but he looks so sad and stressed (and much older than his years) in that picture; and she looks so effing proud of herself. I hope he’s able to get out of dodge and have a happy fulfilling life, I hope their children can have well-adjusted lives (*sigh*), and I hope she’s NEVER allowed off that list or to teach again.
BTW, who is she giving piano lessons to? This is just so messed up. If this was a man, he (most likely) wouldn’t be allowed around children, not even his own.
Barbara is an asshole, like who says something like that. That man is a victim and it looks like he had nowhere to turn and no one helped him. It is so sad.
MK has the craziest of crazy eyes I have ever seen. She makes me sick. She should have been in prison longer and should never have been allowed around him or those girls.
Did barbara ask her about her other 4 kids? Because she has 4 other kids with her first husband. Some of whom were older that villi once she started raping him. Last I heard they had changed their names and hadn’t spoken to her in years.
Apparently the oldest one was one year younger than her now husband. All four have apparently made peace with it and have a relationship with their mother, their new sisters and even Vili, although they are all adults and did not want to be interviewed. Yes they are obviously a lot smarter than their mother. In fact Vili does say how hard it was to be the step parent for a person who is just a bit younger than you.
This is another reason why I just wish Barbara had let this be, and please let the reality show be gossip. Even if you do believe they are a normal in love couple, and after seeing the interview I highly doubt it, but just throw out all reason and believe it, the scenario is so far out in left field why would anyone want to glorify it. Even Vili doesn’t seem to want to do that. He seems to know that it was wrong, and he would never wish this on his own kids. Which puts him in an awful position of justifying their life, as I am sure he is happy with his daughters and loves them, but publicly declaring or at least insinuating his relationship with their mother was wrong. So messed up they should have just disappeared from public life.
This is sooooo sad. Mary Kay has always been a creepy, infantile, mentally challenged figure. I think she got off on the attention and enjoyed being emotionally dominant to the young boy. Apparently she’s all f*cked up from the childhood drowning of her younger brother, whom she was supposed to be watching. Whatever. She DID steal Vili’s childhood and she didn’t give him choice and at least HE realises what she did to him now. He’s from a disadvantaged family; no father to speak of and very poor and he did not have any real authority figures in his life.
I think Vili’s going to leave her as soon as the daughters come of age. She’s sooooo creepy and weird. In seven years he’s going to be 38 and she’ll be an old lady. They’re obviously doing the interview for money. She’s a pedo and should remain registered for life. Good luck, Vili, it’s never to late to start over and ditch her and don’t fall for her manipulative guilt trapping efforts. (“But I went to prison for you!” – most probably)
I thought the same thing she probably manipulated him with “no one loves u as much as me, I went to jail because I love u so much”. Poor guy.
I think she would be categorized as a Sociopath. There is no way any State would give back her teaching license.
Yep, I agree. She’s textbook sociopath. Sociopath and predator. I feel so sad for Vili.
Well really wish the writers of that unfortunate SNL skit this past weekend ( the one where the teacher is on trial for having sex with a 16 yr old boy) had watched this interview. This woman is beyond sick. And Barbara Walters- what are you thinking? Your impressive career is being totally ocershadowed by your horrendous lack of judgment re interviews like this. I only hope no one watched!
Big difference between 12 and 16, 16 is the age of consent in some states but 12?
Nice to see that after all these years MKL still doesn’t see anything wrong with her crimes. She took that boy’s life. You can see the consequences of her actions written across his face. I am at a total loss for words to describe this woman’s delusion. May she mever be allowed near children again.
“You can see the consequences of her actions written across his face.”
^^THIS x 1000
That is not the face of a man caught in an epic love story. That’s the face of a man that’s married to his predator, shackled to her through their 2 daughters.
The comments about his daughters dating were very telling. He was groomed from a young age, but I wonder if fatherhood helped to open his eyes to how serious MKL’s crimes against him truly were.
“but I wonder if fatherhood helped to open his eyes to how serious MKL’s crimes against him truly were. ”
Yes. The 31 year old Vili seems much more aware of what really happened to him as a teen, and that it’s still continuing.
I remember the last interview she did with her family and she acts like it’s all Shangri La. Then he talks and two of her older children talked who came to live with her later when they were in their late teens, I think, or college, and all of them were very honest about the dark side of all of this and the emotional struggles. She lives in a delusional world in her mind.
What woman gets pregnant twice by a very young minor? She’s a teacher. She has sex with a very, very young boy. If that’s not bad enough, she gets pregnant twice, saddling him down having to be a father when he has no concept of anything. He’s a kid himself. She isn’t even aware enough to use birth control.
She lived in this world where forget my other kids, I’m in love with this 12, 13, 14-year old, and we’ll have babies and go off into the sunset. She goes off to jail for seven years and he’s left with two babies and screwed up for life.
The girls are pretty and sound like, thank God, they aren’t screwed up from this.
No one is bothering them. She acts like the world is still harassing them. She said yes to an interview for money, bottom line, and put her daughters on national TV to sell that story.
She’s so manipulative, I don’t believe she got pregnant by accident. She tied him down. He would be gone by now if not for his daughters.
She ruined that boy’s life.
That’s exactly what I think. There was no way out for him. He doesn’t even have a GED. She was a teacher so why wouldn’t she encourage him to get one? I don’t understand anyone who would hire her as their child’s tutor or piano teacher.
She is bat shit crazy. It’s creepy.
Ugh, I can’t with this story. I actually know people who sympathize with her and think the fact that they’re still together proves it was true luv all along.
My son is 12. To any predator who looks in his direction – I’m armed. What the hell happened that every adult in child Vili’s life failed him so miserably?
Vili’s father was in prison and his mother was working to support her children. He had little adult supervision and he was probably lonely. Mary Kay deliberately targeted him. That’s the pedophile’s m.o.
My son just turned 13. He’s nearly 5’8″, 165 pounds and with a little bit or dark fuzz above his lip. He looks like a young man, is interested in girls and still believes in Santa Claus. That is the funny thing about that age – they can be so grown up in some ways and still be children in others. You can absolutely connect with my son on a lot of deeper levels, but you would have to be completely unhinged to think that he is mature enough operate as a fully formed grown-up.
Mine is 13 and 5’10’. He still calls me mommy sometimes but thinks he knows everything. However, he is very naive. When a girl at school was putting notes in his books I told him she likes him. He turned to me and said, “No she doesn’t mom. She has a boyfriend.” sigh…
Where to start with this???
Firstly, there is no need of ‘statutory’ caveat around this. We do not have sex with 12yr olds. Period. End of.
By his words, It’s quite clear that Vili is still not OK with any of this, but I wager that his older partner is coaching him about how he should behave or feel about it all. She’s OK with it, doesn’t see that she did wrong, wants off the sex offender register because blah, blah, blah and Vili has to go along with it……
Vili is very much still a victim here. In many ways his kids are less victims than he is because he recognises that it is wrong, even if he is stuck with this woman in an effort to raise the family.
The fact that he had no support or guidance for the first 7yrs of his daughters’ lives, when the woman was in prison, implies that he is hanging onto her in the ’10yr marriage’ farce to be guided and supported by this older woman.
And I don’t mean financial support.
He was 12, TWELVE, when he had his first daughter and 13, THIRTEEN for the second one. And had to figure it out…..
Someone needs to remove this horrid woman and send her back to jail. Children should not be raising children even if later they have a ‘loving 10yr marriage’ with the person who forced this one them.
/RANT/
What a disturbing story. I feel so sorry for him, just by reading up his opinion about his daughters dating. Perverse woman.
It doesn’t matter how successful her marriage is. It’s still wrong. If given the chance to teach the young boys again, what made you think that she would not do it again.
I couldn’t watch the interview. Just seeing the articles all over about it made me feel like I needed a shower. She is a sick and twisted woman who should NOT be removed from the sex offender list. The only time I think it should be allowed is some of the guys who wind up on it for having sex with their girlfriends and the parents press charges in an outrage even when there’s not much age difference at all. But this woman? Hell to the no should she EVER be allowed to teach again. No effing way. No.
“When we were first married they were very involved in our home. All of our holidays were always together. And they’re very close with their sisters.”
I wanna know what changed? What happened?
I feel like there’s a story there…do her kids from her first marriage hate her now?
She’s so gross.
She doesn’t fit the definition of a pedophile – he was not a young child when she had sex with him, he was an adolescent, not prepubescent. Also, a true pedophile would have moved on to another child, not stayed with him. If anything, she was a ephebophile. Except that she is STILL with Vili. I think she is a very messed up individual, who fell ‘in love’ with a very young boy and selfishly took was she wanted and damn the consequences. And he was the victim and continues to be. She definitely has some personality/mental disorder, but it is not pedophilia.
I think you’re getting caught up in the semantics. She is a predator and a sex offender. She started grooming the kid at the age of 7, when he was in her 2nd grade class.
That’s not necessarily true. Not all pedophiles fit a standard mould. The modus operandi is to attach themselves to someone who is vulnerable. Vili, because of his psycho-social circumstances, and because he is a 12 year old boy, for goodness sake, was the victim of a pedophile.
Just because he was 12 years old when he was first raped, does not mean he wasn’t assaulted by a pedophile. Under certain circumstances (check the DSM-5), the age range is expanded to encompass up to 13 years of age.
And before someone asks, no I do not have children. However, I was systematically assaulted by my father who was grooming me for my future husband. And trust me, just because I became too old for him to abuse in a sexual sense, doesn’t mean his abyssal influences didn’t affect me after I reached pubescence.
End Rant
She was his teacher twice — when he was seven years old and again a few years later when he was twelve years old. In the interim she would talk about him to other teachers.
If she was acting inappropriately with a seven-year-old child, then yes, she DOES fit the description of a pedophile.
What bothers me then is I know a lot of people who have lost their virginity at a young age and they claim willingly, I’ve heard 13, 11, 12, even 9, are all those then being cohersed/stat rape? I had a friend in middle school and at age 12 her mother allowed her to have a 19 year old boyfriend and he snuck her into clubs. Only when our society changes our thinking, will this woman be defined as a pedo. (just asked a male friend and he said he would have loved to have had a woman at that age come onto him; this seems to be the standard reaction from the men I have polled so far).
I have no idea why my pointing out that she is not a pedophile enraged so many people. Look up the definition of it, and if you still want to call her one, have it. I don’t have a dog in this hunt.
Having sex with a 12 year old is just as bad as having sex with a seven year old. You don’t have sex with a child, period. She started grooming him at seven and then made her move when he was twelve. She is a rapist and he is a victim. And he still is.
Mental state doesn’t matter on the definition of pedos. The fact that she as an adult slept with a 12 year old boy is enough to place her firmly in that category.
A sexual predator, yes. A pedophile, no.
I wouldn’t be surprised after their 2 girls are grown and out of the house, Vili splits from MKL, hopefully he will get the help he needs and have a normal relationship with a woman.
Gosh, what an awful, disturbing story. I don’t even know what to say about it.
Mary Kay’s father was a famous politician who hit the front pages when his son with a mistress came under child protectiion for having a damaged penis. John’s wife was out in left field. The fruit don’t fall far from the tree! These girls have a weird mother, and then look at their grand father!
Oh lord I just read about the father, what a piece of work.
Gosh, he married his rapist. That is stuff nightmares are made of.
And “General Hospital” storylines. But those people were actors who got to go home at the end of the day. It’s a terrible story. I hope that boy and those daughters can figure out how to function in a world that, for the most part, is not populated by people with Mary Kay’s outlook.
Is it just me, or does he look like he has aged 40 years…
I was shocked at how old he looks.
On another site it says that these pics were taken at their “beachfront home” Really? She has a beachfront home!?!
Well, she’s a legal assistant and he works at a home and garden center. Irresponsible media paying for wedding photos, and exploiting him in other ways would pay for it.
I don’t know if she has access to family money but she might.
There was no way I would watch this, but I did read that MKL thought there like be great media interest in their story due to some 10 or 15 year anniversary mark. I am amazed she stayed in the same school district. Great way to make sure your daughters find out the sordid truth someday, right where everything played out.
She dresses like a teenager. I hope he moves on someday, if his words about his daughters and dating truly reveal how he currently feels.
I will co-sign all of your points. Why would they continue living in that district?!? While the story caught national attention (and a lot of people still remember it), continuing to live where it all happened is just weird. There’s a good chance that teachers and administrators who were working at the time are still employed, you have neighbors and business owners who remember what happened and so on.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? She supposedly made money selling this story years ago, so I assumed she used those funds to relocate. I cannot imagine that people do not point them out even more so than if they chose a different location. No wonder the daughters found out through the rumor mill.
MKL is a narccissist. She really things she didn’t do anything wrong, because the rules don’t apply to her – she is special – don’t you understand, they were actually in love, so it’s not like the typical assault of a teacher on a student (insert loads of sarcasm) But this is how she thinks. She said it many times. Staying in her district is her being stubborn and standing her ground that she did nothing wrong.
I agree with JenniferJustice, MKL has stood her ground and held the “I did nothing wrong” line throughout. She has no concept of how she is perceived by others. She only believes in her “true love justifies all” delusion.
Anyone who has sex with a 12-year-old little boy cannot blame anyone but her own sick self. I hate this witch.
Her eyes look nuts…
My precious 12yo son would not be giving up his life after being abused like Vili was. Nope. I would fight to the death to keep that predator at bay. Forever.
How well I remember Ellie Nesler, as it happened in my town, hell hath no fury like a vengeful mother!
This below says it all for me:
Vili doesn’t want his daughters to date: “The reason for me telling them that was just from, out of experience. A relationship could lead to something that you think you wanted back then. You don’t really want it, maybe, years later … I don’t support younger kids being married or having a relationship with someone older. I don’t support it.”
Huge red flag. He wants OUT! He basically just announced it on television and no one is listening. This poor boy is obviously living with the effects of being sexually assaulted and now is stuck with the pedophile who abused him. He had no chance then and has no chance for a normal life now. She took everything from him. How twisted that society doesn’t feel the same outrage for male victims. Barbara needs to give her head a shake.
That is very telling, indeed. He isn’t happy as an adult who never had a clear mind to choose. Just from photos, he looks so old and lost. His attentive ‘movie star’ turned into his captor, it appears. And he now realizes it.
I am part of society and I definitely feel the outrage! She skirted around the law and married him as soon as he was legal to do so, so there was nothing anybody could do. The only person who could have talked sense to him was his mother, but she supported his relationship with that pervert.
Everytime I see her it’s that same “don’t hate me, I’m a good person” stupid look on her face. She makes me feel stabby.
I really don’t believe in hitting people for many reasons, and I probably wouldn’t really do it, but I just want to punch her in the face.
We can always fantasize.
I want to slap her until she cries, and then slap her some more. It’s a horrible, horrible thing to say, but the way she’s sitting there like she’s selling this beautiful story of star crossed lovers just infuriates me. She is a predator. A rapist. And she to this day is trying to sell it as a love that we just don’t understand. 7 years in jail wasn’t long enough.
No amount of time in jail would make her think any differently. If anything, it would perpetuate her belief that she is a martyr.
So many comments about her being crazy—isn’t it possible she is mentally ill? I somehow remember they claimed that early on in her defense..or a sociopath..i dated one of those and they continually repeat their dating behavior but tend to stay with people for a long time.
Poor, poor Vili. It looks/sounds like he’s still being victimized. He needs to get away from this evil POS, if not for himself, for the sake of his kids. That’s not the type of relationship you want to model for your daughters. They’ll grow up thinking this is healthy, normal, no big deal. Ick.
MKL should be hung and so should Barbara Walters for presenting childhood rape as though it can have a fairytale ending.
I’m going to go vomit.
Poor Vili. Why would he ever agree to marry her?
Stockholm syndrome. I’m kidding but it’s kind of like that. He needed someone to get him away from her, it’s not something a child is capable of doing for themselves, and he is emotionally immature because he was only 12 when she started messing with his head and his feelings, and they have kids together.
She still doesn’t get it. That’s how you know she’s truly sick. She still thinks she had a love affair with a 13 yr old child! It’s an abomination.
Villi never received any treatment for the abuse he went through as a child. Instead of therapy, he got 2 babies to raise while his abuser was in prison. Then she gets out, seeks him out and continues the abuse. He’s been an emotional hostage since childhood and we wonder why he suffers from depression. It’s not uncommon for victims to identify with and protect their abusers. This isn’t “love”. I feel badly for him. If the situation were reversed so the abuser was a man and the victim was a girl, I don’t think this would ever have turned out this way. His mother and the system did a terrible job protecting him from this predator.
Barbara Walters should be smacked for how she spoke to Vili and the fact that people think this is a love story or refer to it as an affair or say that no one got hurt (her first 4 kids? Vili as a child? the 2 kids who have to deal with this forever?) makes me sick. She raped a child; it really is that simple. She trapped him by having his kids when he was an eighth grader and she brainwashed him. He wasn’t old enough to understand the implications of an adult who was his teacher having sex with him and using her position of authority in the sickest way. She was an upper class white woman and he was a low income child from a family with issues, no father, and from another country. She liked his drawing and wanted to encourage it? Then why were you taking him around in your car and raping him late at night, Mary Kay Sandusky? He went through addiction and depression like many abuse victims do, and he doesn’t seem to feel like he had or has anywhere else to turn or go. His body language screams misery. This woman is evil to the core.
And on top of everything she did, his mother encouraged the relationship so he’s even more warped because his only parent not only failed to protect him, but promoted and pushed him…I’m guessing because she thought a middle-class white woman might provide a better life for him? I don’t know, but the bottom line is, he has no decent role models in his life and no one protected him. I can’t imagine how a marriage to a foster mother (that’s how I see it) would impede a man’s development. He is forever a man-child….truly tragic.
I think she initially fought it and reported it (if I’m remembering correctly) and then ended up giving in. I think he became very attached to her because of the life he was leading, and she should’ve stopped this 12 year old and said stop it, absolutely not, I’m an adult and I’m your ally, not your girlfriend. But she’s a pedophile who just happened to fixate on this one child and then trapped him. He’s depressed, trying to talk about how he felt, and that idiot Barbara Walters told him to think about his 10 year marriage? What a jackass.
@jenn12: Hiiii grrrl! Agreed, the class and race issues in this story tend to get ignored, but they are significant. I also can’t stand the way BW refers to it as “the scandal” and “their controversial romance” and all this other sexy-sounding nonsense instead of using the correct terms: rape, abuse, crime, etc.
As a teacher and a mother, I was always so sickened by this story. How could anyone not see this as straight up rape and emotional manipulation?
I can’t add anything more insightful than what’s been said above, except I wish more people would realize boys can be and are just as traumatized and hurt by sexual abuse as girls. It’s sad that we even have to SAY that, because of COURSE they are. Unless they get a lot of really good counseling, they tend to have lifelong issues with trust and control just for a start.
She sickens me. And I don’t like her getting any attention at all. She needs to go the eff away, and I wish he could get some help and get away from her.
I watched this and I kept looking at him. He is so trapped and never knew normalcy.
He doesn’t seem happy. I think he stays in the marriage because he simply has no where to go and no way of really supporting himself. He is a high school drop out. He looks miserable. He didn’t say one nice thing about her the whole interview. I also don’t understand why they would want their daughters’ faces shown on TV. Let them live normal lives. Now everyone knows their names and faces. Perhaps the girls are interested in singing careers and wanted exposure? I don’t know but the whole interview was so creepy.
Still circling the drain that one.
I “painfully” watched this when it aired. At this point, I think she’s much more into him than he is to her. Vili did seem miserable during the interview, and Bedhead is right…his youth and life were stolen from him. The daughters are charming, but I think Mary Kay should still be in prison.
There are so many things wrong with this woman, I don’t have time to cover it all, but I’ll touch on the things that are screaming out at me:
1. Doesn’t his last paragraph say it all? You think you want it, but then later, you don’t. I’ll bet he got in serious trouble for saying that. She’s all about the perception that they are so in love and it’s all okay because they got married and had kids you know.
2. She is bipolar. That was her defense – not guilty by reason of mental defect – she was diagnosed bipolar conveniently before her trial. But if that were the reason for her behavior and she was immediately put on meds for it, why did the behavior not stop? Yah. I’m not buying it. She’s just a narcissist and a hebaphile. period.
3. When children/teens are sexually abused (which he was – not possible to consent at the age of 12), the long-term affects are depression, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, resentment. He is text book!
4. How in the world is tutoring, mentoring, teaching music – not teaching? If a person has their teaching license yanked because they can’t stop themselves from skanking on their students, wouldn’t it be logical that any type of teachinig – mentoring, tutoring – be included? She was found guilty a served time, so she must be a registered sex offender. Why, then, is she allowed near children for any means, let alone teaching. She sees herself as nurturing but has a skewed viewpoint. I find it absolutely disgusting she is still teaching, but in a less structured environment – which completely defeats the purpose. WTH!!
Sorry, MKL, bipolar does not make you a pedophile. It can increase your sex drive and your risk taking behaviors, but it won’t drive you into wanting to have sex with children. That’s called being a MOTHER EFFING PEDOPHILE.
Someone already said it before me, many times, but this woman makes me stabby. And to use the bipolar diagnosis as a defense for pedophilia? Speaking from personal experience, bipolar disorder did NOT make me attracted to children. More likely to engage in risky behaviors? Sure. Pedophilia? Nope, not on my worst, undiagnosed day. This is part of the reason I get so frustrated with the way mental health is managed in this country- it’s either treated like it’s a shameful secret or like it’s some sort of catchall for whatever the freak is wrong with you. Nope, sorry, being an entitled asshole doesn’t go away just because you got a diagnosis. I don’t get to shirk the responsibility for my actions pre-diagnosis, just because I understand what might have driven some of them. Good grief, personal accountability is just down the drain these days.
I’m off to have a conference call while in a MKL-induced rage-this should be good!
I know you’re on a conference call where I hope you don’t take your MKL anger out on some poor client/co-worker *snort*, but if you should come back to check this thread, I like what you said….”This is part of the reason I get so frustrated with the way mental health is managed in this country- it’s either treated like it’s a shameful secret or like it’s some sort of catchall for whatever the freak is wrong with you. ”
It’s time the courts stop allowing fraudulent mental health claims as a defense. You say mental illness is used as a catchall for whatever the freak is wrong with people. That’s true. It’s also used to justify whatever the freak people DO wrong. Remember the twinkie trial? That guy shot a mayor and claimed he was hopped up on sugar from eating too many twinkies…. not really a mental defect defense, but a chemical imbalance defense . I understand our justice system and the need for a fair trial, but the overuse and overdiagnosis simply to attempt to put a logical reason behinid illogical behavior is so overplayed, I don’t even pay attention to a mental defect defense for anybody anymore and that’s sad because there probably are some legitimate cases where a person was truly imbalanced on some level, but alas, I’m jaded. I’m sick of the automatic response to facing consequences – it, somehow, wasn’t my fault. I would find a guilty plea for any case refreshing, but they never do that. It’s always something or somebody’s else’s fault. Heaven forbid a person admit in court they were a creep and save everybody some time and money.
The mental defense doesn’t actually fly too often in our legal system. Regardless of your mental state the slow moving wheels of justice will grind along and convict and imprison you. Our jails are full of people with social problems, as in drugs and mental health issues, so it’s an urban myth that people are escaping responsibility through the “crazy” defense. MKL did the time for her crime and she didn’t get treatment, just like most everyone else.
And then you have idiots applauding this “love” story or saying they were meant to be, or Barbara Walters admonishing him because he has a wife and ten year marriage or journalists introducing this story by saying, “The affair started when…” NO. It was NOT an affair. It was a middle aged woman molesting a not yet teenaged boy, and deliberately getting pregnant by him. I don’t think he wants to admit that the mother of his kids is his rapist, and that she never had his best interests at heart, and that she stole his life away. If he pretends that this woman is his stability and that it’s true love, he can avoid facing the truth.
Many pedophiles have narcissistic personality disorder…and MKL clearly does. It goes a long way explaining why she stayed in her hometown while her ex husband changed his name and moved away…he didn’t even do anything wrong, and he wanted to leave.
This woman looks wacked! I hope he realize this and find someone more worth his time. He is young and still has a whole life ahead of him.
I don’t know if it’s true but I read somewhere that this disgusting woman ( I have worse names to call her) even had the nerve to say he ‘cheated’ on her while she was in prison. If it’s true then she is one messed up sick paedophile, sounds like she is trying to play the victim and can’t even give a sh#& about the guy and the damaged boy he was then. Trying to grasp all this and it just sickens me he was let down by the whole system, from his own family, social services, prosecutors and everybody! His daughters are victims of this too and her other family. What frightens me is yes people are saying the daughters sound well adjusted but we don’t really know what is going on behind closed doors. People saw them briefly and were quick to say this but if they are so well adjusted why the hell did they find out about this ‘great relationship’ from the internet and not their sick mother’s own mouth?
The woman is vile and living on another planet from the look of it, no regret what so ever which is scary.
Yeah, she said he “wasn’t faithful” to her when she was in prison. She’s definitely loony.
The scary thing is that she could turn on their daughters if she feels they are getting more love and affection from him than she does – given her crazy obsessed behaviour this is likely what is going on behind closed doors.
He wants out but doesn’t know how. I can’t understand why she hasn’t been sectioned into an ayslum – you can see the craziness in her eyes.
She still doesn’t see her failure as an adult woman. She is awful.
How utterly repulsive. Barbara Walters should be ashamed for exploiting this. I feel badly for Vili and his daughters, MKL is completely nuts.
The is a clear example of how our society fails to rehabilitate the mentally ill. While I don’t disagree she deserved jail time, she is by no means ready to be back out on the streets and raising children. I know children need their mother, but this woman should be in intensive psychiatric care. She’s a danger to herself and others.
It’s unbelievable how much we fail rape victims as a society that we would encourage, even indirectly, this young man’s devotion to his assaulter.
I agree, he is a victim, plain and simple, and he has now endured years of abuse from his rapist.
About polling guys you know: in my experience, guys lie a lot about sex. They lie about whether or not they’ve engaged in it, with a particular woman or in general, and they lie about their feelings about it, they lie about how physically attracted they feel to women they meet. Our culture has an especially tiny box for boys when it comes to sexuality, and even though Mother Nature certainly uses those hormones to push guys toward keeping the species going – every man actually is quite different in how they feel and react and in the strength of their sex drive. But many of them feel compelled to make everybody around them think they meet what is the accepted norm for men and at the same time their idea of the norm is quite unrealistic. The range is really quite broad, as it is with women. So they lie. I remember one close male friend was going on an on so much and so often about how attracted he was to every woman he saw, I finally said, “You know, you don’t really have to prove anything to me.” I think he actually had a relatively low sex drive and was just used to covering it up that way because heaven forbid you be a guy and not thinking about sex all the time. I knew him well enough to know he was grossly exaggerating, but I suppose it had become habit in adolescence in an attempt to fit in and avoid the dreaded gay label (I don’t think he was gay, actually).
It can be really hard to get past this problem to get the truth out of guys, the social pressures are so high. I doubt casual polling of friends will do it. In Vili’s case, he obviously was quite traumatized by the whole thing. What he said about not wanting his daughters to date didn’t sound at all like the usual double standard. He was talking about himself as a young boy, and he was being honest.
Their daughters are beautiful. I wish them only the best.
Mom has crazy, dead eyes.
Bitc*, you are an insane as* sex offender, which is why you are on the list and why you should stay there.
The only thing you should be “teaching” is for your daughters NOT TO BE LIKE YOU…because you raped a child. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. YES, YOU DID!!!
As a public elementary school teacher, it offends me greatly that you expect to commit such a crime and expect to have the honor of your own classroom once again. The trust parents hold to a teacher is golden, and yours is tarnished beyond repair.
Get help. You need it.
As an adult who, as a child, escaped the hands of a pedophile by the grace of God…ugh, nevermind…no words. Just no words.
She looks crazy, desperate. Homegirl’s issues have issues. She’s just friggin nuts. I feel bad how the husband is basically trapped. He just doesn’t know anything else, let alone how the whole situation is 20 layers of messed up!!!
You can’t fool body language. Just look at the way his left hand is rested away from her arm in the second and third pictures from the top. That says a lot about the purity of this relationship. I don’t have any issues if a 30 year old wants to be married to a 55 year old because they both have done some fun life and know exactly what they are committing to. But a 34 year old with 4 kids and a 12 year old ?? They should have kept this mentally ill woman in prison till she rots.
Yep. Body language says VF is unhappy and wants out. A man in love would hold his lady close and snuggle her in, but VF is repeatedly seen in recent photos (and video) trying to NOT touch her. He holds his daughters close, so he’s not uncomfortable with touch.
His body language 10 years ago when they married was very different. Back then, these 2 had never actually been a couple on a day-to-day basis. So I imagine she had built up his expectations enormously about how awesome everything would be. He was excited to finally marry her, plus they were enjoying the payday of her 1st post-prison BW interview (3/4 of a million dollars, I think?) which had to be quite amazing for a high school dropout who had spent his life up til then in poverty.
Now that he’s spent a decade with this predator, and has had more time to process what happened to him, he seems miserable.
Correction: 3/4 million was the payday for their wedding photos/video. But I’m sure MKL gets paid $$$ for these interviews too.
The look on his face always seems to say, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’. Looks to me, from the pics, he feels a bit trapped and foolish.
Poor Vili. This is such a sexist story, isn’t it? If the adult had been male and the victim female, would she have been coerced into marrying her rapist? Somehow, I think not. Boys need to be protected from creeps just as much as girls do. I hope he gets away from her, she should still be locked up.
Most people accept as fact, the evidence-based research on the stages of cognitive development in children. Most of our laws regarding children are based on that research. That’s why most of us think her behavior is not only criminal, but also repulsive and regrettable. But she doesn’t. That’s why she didn’t move out of the place where she committed her crimes. That’s also why she is looking for press coverage of her anniversary. That’s why she’s allowing images of her two young daughters to be broadcast, thereby destroying their anonymity. She’s caused a lot of trouble for herself, and trouble and pain to all her children and both of her husbands. A normal person would regret this and seek to shield her family from further difficulty EVEN IF THEY DISAGREED with the science, the laws or the social norms. But she doesn’t. She is nuts.
It was sad to see how miserable the guy looks. I genuinely feel this lady is Gone Girling him. She wouldn’t take her eyes off of him, as if she was making sure he didn’t say anything that wasn’t practiced before the interview. When he spoke about when he’s with the girls and her he feels safe. The poor guy never truly got to grow up the right way. It’a almost as if part of his adolescence is still in him and he doesn’t really know how to manage what he feels. He’s been depressed and it’s all because of her. She ruined his life and it’s so obvious he is starting to see that. I’m 33 and I work with kids who are 12 and in no damn way would it even cross my mind to see them as anything else as children. She claims they were in love? How stupid can you be to think a child could even truly comprehend what being in love is. I hope she remains a sex offender because what she did is no less than taking a life from someone. She stole his youth, his innocence!
While she was in prison, MKL threatened her victim with “automatic castration” if he touched or talked to another woman. She is appalling.
http://articles.philly.com/1999-02-23/news/25503688_1_mary-kay-letourneau-vili-fualaau-letters
I don’t know if this has been mentioned, but let’s not forgot that she originally taught him in the second grade before having him in her sixth grade class. SHE HAD KNOWN HIM SINCE HE WAS SEVEN. If it’s possible to make this whole situation grosser, that should do it. BW should be ashamed of herself for trying to normalize this relationship and telling him he should feel thankful instead of depressed. Can you imagine if this situation had been gender reversed?? I think there would be even more verbal outcry if the victim was a 12 year old girl and the perpetrator was an adult man and they were still in this situation 20 years later and she was lookin trapped and depressed and ugh I just can’t even continue with this. Anyone who tries to justify this relationship based on length and “love” does not understand how emotional abuse and manipulation works.
This poor guy has mommy issues out the wazoo, and like the true sociopath she is, Mary Kay knows how to work his issues to her own advantage.
The girls are lovely. One can only hope they aren’t too emotionally messed up.
So she wants to start teaching again her little young husband must be getting too old for her and she’s wanting a new husband this time she will probably go after a fourth or fifth grader. A male child is not safe around this woman.