The former Desperate Housewives star spoke candidly for the first time about her involvement in the college admissions scandal and apologized for the route she had taken.
Years ago, television stars such as Full House‘s Lori Loughlin and Desperate Housewives‘ Felicity Huffman were caught playing a part in a college admissions scandal. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Huffman is breaking her silence for the first time and apologizes for partaking in the fraud in an interview for the Los Angeles-based ABC7 Eyewitness News. Per THR, the scandal was “dubbed Operation Varsity Blues by the FBI. As part of the fraud, parents allegedly paid millions in bribes to get their children into elite colleges like Yale, Stanford and the University of Southern California.” Lori Loughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, were sentenced in the case, although Huffman’s spouse, actor William H. Macy, was not found to be involved.
In the interview, Huffman would apologize for “unlawfully disguising a $15,000 charitable donation in the bribery scheme so someone could take her daughter’s SAT exam.” She explained, “It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future. And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law. I think the people I owe a debt and apology to is the academic community. And to the students and the families that sacrifice and work really hard to get to where they are going legitimately.”
Huffman cited meeting with a founder of a college prep business, William Singer, where she had been made aware of a scandalous method of paying someone to take the SATs or ACTs to help her daughter into a good school. Huffman claimed that the option was not an instant arousal for her, but it evolved over time as she felt the moral obligation to uphold the system. The actress explained that she would work with Singer for over a year “and trusted him implicitly and he recommended programs and tutors, and he was the expert.” Singer would eventually talk her into the scheme.
Huffman admitted, “And I believed him. And so when he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seems like — and I know this seems crazy at the time — but that was my only option to give my daughter a future. And I know hindsight is 20/20 but it felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it. So, I did it.”