Mary Kay Letourneau’s former student Vili Fualaau speaks out on child rape

Vili Fualaau, who married Mary Kay Letourneau after she abused him at 12, shared her last moments and said what he would do in her shoes.

The student who was raped by and later married his teacher Mary Kay Letourneau has spoken out for the first time since her death, saying he would “seek some help” if he was ever in her shoes.

Letourneau died aged 58 in July after a private battle with cancer with mystery surrounding the extent of her relationship with her one-time student Vili Fualaau at the time of her death.

Letourneau made headlines in 1997 when the then 34-year-old was convicted of raping Mr Fualaau as a child.

She gave birth to his first child when Mr Fualaau was just 13. Despite serving jail time for her sexual abuse of him, the pair went on to marry in 2005.

Mr Fualaau gave his first in-depth interview since her death on US talk show Dr Oz this week, shedding some light on their complicated relationship.

When host Dr Mehmet Oz pointed out that Mr Fualaau is now around the same age that Letourneau was when she began abusing him as a 12-year-old boy he had a blunt response.

“Well, I’d probably go and seek some help,” Vili said with a laugh.

“I couldn’t look at a 13-year-old and be attracted to that because it’s just not in my brain, it’s nothing that I am attracted to.

“I mean, we all have our preferences and that’s just not something that I would go towards.”

Vili Fualaau spoke for the first time this week. Picture: YouTube.

LETOURNEAU’S FINAL DAYS

According to Mr Fualaau, he had been talking with Letourneau about their two daughters Audrey and Georgia when she died.

There was a “sense of relief that she wasn’t in pain anymore” , Mr Fualaau said.

“We were just talking about when they were kids and we were laughing.

“And I turned over and … I didn’t see her chest moving.”

“And I thought it was maybe one of those pauses she has and she’ll come back. You know, she’s gonna take a deep breath and she’s gonna come back … I would count in-between those pauses and it was just the longest count that I had.”

Mr Fualaau and Letourneau separated in 2017, with conflicting reports emerging about why the couple had spilt up and if it was even geniune.

According to Letourneau’s solicitor David Gehrke the couple “always deeply cared for each other” and Mr Fualaau had moved to be by his ex-wife’s side in her final months.

“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,” Mr Gehrke told Today.

“So yes, they were divorced and they had their spats, but they were always in love with each other.”

Vili Fualaau, Mary Kay Letourneau and daughters, Audrey and Georgia.

SEPARATION A PUBLICITY STUNT: FUALAAU

The former teacher and student announced in 2017 they were splitting after 10 years of marriage, however, Mr Fualaau at the time said it was a publicity stunt.

According to Mr Fualaau, he had filed for separation so that he could get his marijuana business off the ground without having to worry about Letourneau’s criminal past getting in the way.

“It’s a piece of paper that doesn’t say much,” he told Radar at the time.

The couple’s actions in the months that followed seemed to confirm this, with the Letourneau and Mr Fualaau continuing to live and be spotted in public together.

But then in August last year it all became real, with People confirming the couple had privately finalised their separation.

The couple had divided up their debts and assets but had remained “amicable” with each other.

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau. Picture: Handout

Letourneau posing pregnant for a photograph in Washington State jail. Picture: AP photo/Inside Edition.

SEX ABUSE CASE THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

Letourneau’s abuse of Mr Fualaau made headlines in the late 1990s, with salacious details of the abuse — then labelled an “affair” — beamed around the world.

Letourneau had been a married mother of four when she met Mr Fualaau, then a student in her class.

She was arrested in March 1997 after a relative of her husband Steve tipped off police about the abuse.

Letourneau gave birth to Mr Fualaau’s daughter Audrey in May that year.

Initially sentenced to just six months in jail and ordered not to see Mr Fualaau, Letourneau was caught having sex with the teen boy in a car a month after her release in 1998.

She was then pregnant with Mr Fualaau’s second child and gave birth in prison.

After serving her second jail sentence Mr Fualaau and Letourneau wed in 2005, however, he had to get an order barring her from contacting him lifted before they were able to walk down the aisle.