“May December” is a fictional movie, but its plot is causing a story that consumed ‘90s tabloids to resurface.
Washington state teacher Mary Kay Letourneau pleaded guilty to child rape in 1997 after she was found with her then 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau. They went on to marry and have two children.
Speaking to TODAY.com, director Todd Haynes confirms Letourneau and Fualaau were among his inspirations for the movie. Others included movies like “The Graduate.”
In “May December,” Julianne Moore and Charles Melton play a couple with a similar origin story. The fictional Gracie Atherton made headlines 23 years prior when she was caught having sex with 13-year-old Joe Yoo, her son’s best friend at the time. Years later, Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) is cast to play Gracie Atherton-Yoo in a movie, and spends time with the couple — who later married — and their three children.
Star Julianne Moore tells TODAY.com this is “not the story of Mary Kay Letourneau,” but said she did research Letourneau to prepare for the role.
“I did do a lot of reading about the case and I looked at some documentary footage, and I think what really struck me when I was watching it was how beautiful she was, how dedicated she was to her children, how very feminine she seemed and her fragility,” she continues. “Those, to me, seemed to be the really salient points of what she was presenting to the world.”
Here’s what to know about Letourneau, and what happened to her since her time in the tabloids.
Who was Mary Kay Letourneau?
Mary Kay Letourneau was a 34-year-old married schoolteacher and mother of four in 1996. In June of that same year, police caught Letourneau with her 12-year-old student Fualaau in a parked minivan together at around 1:20 a.m, per The Associated Press.
By the time Letourneau was arrested for rape in February 1997, she was pregnant with the couple’s first child, Audrey, per NBC. She pleaded guilty to child rape in 1997 and spent about five months behind bars, per a 2006 Dateline episode, released on probation under the agreement that she would end all communication with Fualaau.
Letourneau had said in court during her sentencing, per Dateline, “It was wrong and I am sorry. I give you my word, it won’t happen again.”
Less than a month after her release, police again discovered Letourneau in a car with then 14-year-old Fualaau at around 3 a.m, per NBC’s Dateline.
Her original seven-year sentence was reinstated and she gave birth to her second daughter with Fualaau, Georgia Fualaau, behind bars, in February 1998.
She was released from prison in 2004. Shortly after, Fualaau, then 21, spoke about his future with her on TODAY.
“I want to go on a boat cruise. I want to go to the Bahamas or something, or Miami. I don’t know. Somewhere tropical, really hot. Or maybe somewhere really cold,” he said. He also filed to dismiss the court order that prevented Letourneau from contacting him.
The two married in Woodinville, Washington, on May 20, 2005, AP reported. She took his last name. They continued to defend their love story in interviews featured in a A&E documentary about their marriage.
But in May 2017, CNN and multiple outlets confirmed that Fualaau filed for legal separation from his wife after 12 years of marriage.
How did Mary Kay Letourneau die?
Letourneau died of stage 4 colon cancer in July 2020. Her ex-husband, then 37, was by her side, her attorney David Gehrke told TODAY at the time. She was 58.
“Vili moved back from California, gave up his life there, and for the last two months of Mary’s life, he stood by her 24/7 taking care of her,” Gehrke revealed. “So yes, they were divorced and they had their spats, but they were always in love with each other.”
Gehrke added: “(Fualaau) knew that this was Mary’s end coming, fast moving, and for her sake and the family’s sake, and for his sake, he came back up and was with her, and it meant the world to her. And I know it meant the world to Vili, as painful as it was.”