Shocking true story behind hit film May December

The film May December is receiving rave reviews but what Aussies may not realise is the shocking true story it is based on.

The film May December is receiving rave reviews but what Aussies may not realise is the shocking true story it is based on.

The film debuts on Netflix this month and it is currently showing at select cinemas around the country.

It stars Julianne Moore (Gracie) and Charles Melton (Joe) as a married couple who met when Joe was just 13 years old and Gracie a 36-year-old, married, mother-of-four.

Despite their age difference, the pair have a sexual relationship until Gracie is sent to prison for rape.

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in May December. Picture: Facebook/ May December

The pair go on to marry and have three children but the relationship unravels when they’re approached to be the subjects of a new film.

Natalie Portman stars as Elizabeth a successful actor, who is set to play Gracie in a film version of her life, and arrives to spend time with the family ahead of filming.

However, Elizabeth’s presence sparks questions for Joe about the true nature of his relationship with his wife.

If the story sounds loosely familiar, well, that’s because it is.

Shocking story

The story is based on Seattle schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau who was sentenced to prison for rape after having a sexual relationship with her 13-year-old student Vili Fualaau in 1997.

It was Letourneau’s husband Steve who discovered that his wife was sleeping with a teenager and alerted authorities after discovering love letters between the pair.

At the time of her arrest, Letourneau was pregnant with Fualaau’s baby.

Letourneau in court in 1997.

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau. Picture: Handout

She received a six month sentence and was forbidden to have any contact with Fualaau.

After being released in January 1998, Letourneau ignored the court orders and was arrested a month later when she was found having sex with Fualaau in a car.

She was sentenced to a further seven-and-a-half years in prison, where Letourneau and Fualaau’s second child, daughter Georgia, was born on October 16, 1998.

The pair tied the knot in 2004.

Mary Kay Letourneau pictured was plastered all over the media.

Letourneau defends relationship

While Fualaau’s name was suppressed initially in the media when the scandal broke, because he was a child, Letourneau’s picture was plastered all over the media.

She defended the relationship in 1998 telling Oprah Winfrey the pair were soulmates.

“I think with all certainty, this young man is the love of my life, or I wouldn’t have done this to my children,” she said.

Fulaau would later back up Letourneau’s interpretation of the relationship in interviews when he was an adult.

Portman, film director Todd Haynes, Melton and Moore on the promotional tour. Picture: Facebook / May December

In an interview with The Seattle Times he described the relationship as consensual and said the pair were in love.

Cracks begin to show

But the uncomfortable dynamic continued to haunt the ill-matched pair.

A year after they got married, Letourneau revealed that her older four kids regularly visited her and their new stepfather in a 2006 interview with People.

Fualaau admitted there were some strained feelings between her four kids from her first marriage towards him.

He was barely older than Letourneau’s youngest son.

“I feel like I don’t really have a place except that I’m their mother’s husband,” he said.

Later in an interview with Barbara Walters on 20/20 his tone on the relationship markedly changed.

“I don’t support younger kids being married or having a relationship with someone older,” he told Walters. “I don’t support it.”

The pair eventually split in 2019 and a year later Letourneau died from cancer.

Letourneau and Fualaau with their two daughters.

Unhappy with movie portrayal

Fualaau says he was never consulted by director Todd Haynes about the movie telling the Hollywood Reporter he was “offended”.

“I’m still alive and well,” he told the outlet. “If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story. I’m offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me — who lived through a real story and is still living it.”

Portman, asked about the comments, told Entertainment Weeklythat she was “sorry”.

“It’s not based on them, it’s, you know, obviously their story influenced the culture that we all grew up in and influenced the idea,” she said.

“But it’s fictional characters that are really brought to life by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton so beautifully, and yeah, it’s its own story, it’s not meant to be a biopic.”

Originally published as Shocking true story behind hit film May December