News broke in July 2020 that Mary Kay Letourneau died of cancer at age 58. Mary Kay was the former Seattle schoolteacher who was convicted in 1997 of raping her sixth-grade student, Vili Fualaau. Vili and Mary Kay went on to have two children together before Vili was 15, and he and Mary Kay were married for several years before divorcing in 2019.
Mary Kay was 34 and Vili was only 12 when this began. While a lot has been said about their "relationship" over the years, the fact still stands that Vili was very much a child when Mary Kay began to groom and take advantage of him.
However, friends of the couple are speaking out following her death, and they have said that Vili and Mary Kay "still had love for each other."
One friend went on to explain, "They didn't speak every day, but she would update him on her cancer treatment. At the beginning, the talk was that she was going to beat it, that even though the prognosis wasn't good, that she'd fight with everything she had, and that she had a shot of surviving it."
However, it seems that Mary Kay's health took a turn this spring. The same friend also shared that "as things got into the springtime, the thinking was that she was going to need a miracle" and "she started saying her goodbyes" in June as the cancer had "spread so much."
The friend also added that everyone in the family will miss Mary Kay: "She would talk to Vili or he would call her to see how she was doing. The marriage had split up, but they still had love for each other. They had children together and he would always say that she was his first love. So of course he is sad at the loss. He's sad for the girls, but he's also sad for himself."
The friend also added that while Vili knows that his relationship with Mary Kay is mired in questionable choices and activities, he still loved her. "He lost a piece of himself. He understands how [expletive] up everything was in how they got together. He's not stupid. But he can't turn off his feelings completely, and it's a big loss for him. He talked to her right before she passed, and they said everything they needed to say."
Mary Kay's family members released a joint statement about her death: "Mary fought tirelessly against this terrible disease. Mary, and all of us, found great strength in having our immediate and extended family members together to join her in this arduous struggle. We did our very best to care for Mary and one another as we kept her close and stayed close together."
"We are endlessly grateful for the care and kindness received from the amazing professionals involved in Mary's care. Likewise, the kindness and compassion of friends and others who learned of her condition along the way proved an uplifting gift to us all."
"It is in that spirit that we ask for privacy and respect for our desire to focus on the road ahead for all of us who make up Mary's collective family. We ask that our boundaries and need for privacy be honored with continued kindness and understanding."
The family also added, "[We] celebrate and honor the wishes of our wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, sister, beloved family member and loyal friend and concentrate on caring for one another."
The details of what happened between Mary Kay and Vili dominated the news in the late 1990s. In 1996, Mary Kay was Vili's teacher in sixth grade. The two began a sexual relationship in July 1996, when Vili was reportedly 12. Mary Kay was arrested in 1997, and she was convicted of two counts of rape. She was also sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.
Vili and Mary Kay had two daughters together before he turned 15, and he was left raising them while she was in prison. In 2015, he told Barbara Walters that it was definitely a challenging time. "I don't feel like I had the right support or the right help behind me. From my family, from anyone in general. I mean, my friends couldn't help me because they had no idea what it was like to be a parent, I mean, because we were all 14, 15."
Mary Kay also had four children with her first husband, Steve, whom she was married to at the time. She also actually taught Vili twice — she was his second-grade teacher in 1991.
Vili and Mary Kay were discovered together at a marina in Seattle, but she told the police that he was 18, and the police ultimately determined there was no improper misconduct afoot. When Vili began seventh grade that fall, Mary Kay was already pregnant with his child.
Steve discovered letters that Mary Kay and Vili had written to one another, and a relative of his tipped off the police to their relationship in March 1997. Mary Kay ended up pleading guilty to child rape in August 1997 and served a sentence of three months and probation. She was entered into the sex offender registry in January 1998 and ordered to not have contact with Vili.
However, the police discovered the two of them together again only a month later. This time, they had a car seat, over $6,000 in cash, and passports. Mary Kay was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison, and she gave birth to the couple's second child while there.
Mary Kay and Steve divorced, and he moved all four children to Alaska. Vili's mother, Soona, helped raise his two children. When Mary Kay was released, Vili was 21 and asked to lift the no-contact order. The two got married on May 20, 2005, and were more or less happily married until Vili filed for separation in May 2017.
