The former Washington middle school teacher who was jailed for raping her student, whom she later married, Mary Kay Letourneau, has died after months of battling stage 4 colon cancer. She was 58.
Her ex-husband, Vili Fualaau, took to Instagram prior to Letourneau’s passing to share her cancer diagnosis, posting a photo of himself with a medical mask and captioning it, “Praying for a miracle.” Following her passing, her attorney, David H. Gehrke, stated she’d been in hospital care for the past month, with Fualaau by her side, aiding.
Letourneau gained national infamy after she plead guilty in 1997 to sleeping with a then 12-year-old Fualaau while she was 34. During her time in jail, she gave birth to their daughter, and in 2005, after serving seven years, she was released and got married to a 22-year-old Fualaau.
However, in 2017, he filed for separation and in 2019, their divorce was finalized. In addition to Letourneau’s children from a previous marriage, she and Fualaau have two daughters, Audrey and Georgia.
