Photo: Courtesy A&E
In the months before her 2020 deathfrom cancer, former teacher and convicted child rapistMary Kay Letourneauhad a lot of time to reflect – and told some of the people close to her that she felt remorse about sexually abusing the 12-year-old student who later became her husband.
“At the end of your life, you start reassessing a lot of things,” says a source, whoreceived a letterfrom Letourneau about six weeks before she died. “And she was trying to make her peace, not only with everyone else, but with herself.”
By the time she was released from prison, Fualaau was an adult — and he petitioned the court to allow them to see each other. A restraining order against Letourneau was dropped, but Letourneauremained a registered sex offenderin Washington state until her death.
The couple married in 2005, despite the criminal history of their relationship. They settled in Washington and raised their daughters. It lasted until 2017, when Fualaaufiled for legal separationfrom his former wife.
“I’m not surprised that they got married,” Gehrke told PEOPLE in 2017, “and I’m not surprised, in this day and age, that they are separating.”
Heidi Gutman/ABC.
As the split proceeded, Letourneau and Fualaaustill lived togetherand wereoccasionally spotted outin the Seattle area. They both remained active in the lives of their daughters.
But despite the long marriage and two daughters, the source says that Letourneau understood near the end that her actions in the 1990s were illegal and immoral. “Absolutely nothing she did during that stage of her life should ever be emulated,” says the source. “She understood that, more acutely at the end of her life. She felt deep remorse.”
source: people.com
