Mary Kay Letourneau’s best friend claimed she had ‘hijacked’ her 12-year-old student’s life in order to create her idea of the perfect relationship, and that she was ‘disconnected from reality.’
Letourneau spent six years in prison for raping Vili Fualaau, then 12, in 1996, when she was 34 years old, after the two reportedly fell in love when they met at a summer school class. She would later give birth to two of his children, Audrey and Georgia, and the pair married.
Her former best friend Michelle Lobdell, who last saw Letourneau in 1997, recalled the moment her former best friend dropped the shocking news on her in 1996.
‘She said: “I have some news and this is difficult,”‘ Lobdell told the New York Post. ‘She said: “I’m pregnant and it’s not [Letourneau’s husband] Steve’s.”
‘She didn’t tell me he was 12.’ She wouldn’t find out until she saw the papers.
Lobdell is now claiming Letourneau ‘created Vili’ and molded him into her perfect partner.
‘Love had nothing to do with it,’ she said. ‘She hijacked his life and I do believe she was incredibly manipulative.’
Michelle Lobdell, who last saw Letourneau in 1997, said her former best friend Mary Kay Letourneau ‘hijacked’ her 12-year-old lover’s life to create the perfect relationship and that she was ‘so disconnected from reality’
Letourneau pleaded guilty in 1997 to raping Fualaau, who was in sixth grade at the time.
She gave birth to her first daughter Audrey, shortly after and her sentence was suspended, on the condition that she not contact Fualaau.
However, the couple was found having sex inside a car and she was sentenced to prison while pregnant with their second daughter, Georgia, whom she gave birth to while in jail.
After having her sentence suspended after giving birth to her first daughter, the couple was found having sex inside a car and she was sentenced to prison while pregnant with their second daughter, whom she gave birth to while in jail
Her former best friend says Letourneau ‘created Vili’ and molded him into her perfect partner. ‘She hijacked his life and I do believe she was incredibly manipulative.’
After her release, she and her young lover married, to the shock of Lobdell.
‘I couldn’t imagine she’d do what she’d did. In a million lifetimes,’ she said in an upcoming document – Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes on a Scandal – which premieres Sunday at 9pm.
Looking back now, Lobdell said she can ‘make sense of things that I couldn’t before’ and called her friend’s story a ‘tragedy.’
The former best friends met in sixth grade in California and said Letourneau’s life spiraled after it was revealed her religious, GOP congressman dad John Schmitz had fathered two kids out of wedlock in 1982.
She would later give birth to two of his children, Audrey and Georgia, (pictured with Fualaau) and the pair married
Mary Kay, pictured with her daughters and Vili two years before her death, spoke of the ‘media carnage’ their relationship triggered. ‘It’s shock value. That’s what it was all about. Shock. I call it media carnage. Road kill. Blood.’ She was convicted of raping the father of her two children when he was just 12 years old
She would give birth to Georgia during her six years in prison. She was sent to prison after violating her original sentencing deal of not contacting her lover. The pair were found having sex in a car
Her father fueled his career off his family’s squeaky clean image. Her mother appeared as the perfect politician’s wife, but was said to emotionally neglect her daughter, Lobdell said.
She also found out that her friend was a sexual assault victim, herself, and that her mother blamed her for her brother’s death, who died drowning in a pool under Letourneau’s watch.
Lobdell, who works with sexual abuse victims, said Letourneau never fully dealt with her trauma.
After the news about her father came out while she was a student of Arizona State University, ‘something in her changed,’ Lobdell claimed.
‘Her ability to make decisions in her life based on things that were good for her, I think she lost that ability,’ she said. ‘She lived in a fantasy world, because it was the only world she could stand.’
While attending college, Letourneau met her first husband Steve and became pregnant. Her mother pressured her to get married, despite the pair having nothing in common.
‘He checked all the boxes but when I met him there was nothing there,’ Lobdell said. ‘I realize now that it was her mother’s pressure.’
Lobdell said ‘she never had anyone she could rely on in her life to love and protect her and look after her self interest’ and her mother never approved of her daughter.
After being released from prison, she and Fualaau married
Lobdell said she didn’t know Fualaau was 12 until she learned about it through the news, and claims her friend’s personal trauma was the reason she lost touch with reality
Lobdell thinks this is what attracted her to ‘hijack’ Vili’s life and create the relationship she wanted.
The last time the friends spoke in 1997, Lobdell said the convicted rapist was ‘so disconnected from reality.’
Fualaau and Letourneau divorced in 2019 and the latter died of colon cancer in 2020.
Fualaau said after her death that he had ‘lost a piece of himself.’
Lobdell recalled going outside after learning of Letourneau’s death and putting her arms around her husband and crying ‘for an hour.’
‘I will always have compassion. I loved Mary Kay. I will always love Mary Kay,’ she told the Post.
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