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A scandal made feature film. The movie May December that Natalie Portman is going to play is from the 90s, when Mary Kay Letourneau had sex with her 12-year-old student. Reality almost always surpasses fiction. And in this case as time went by it went further: this 34-year-old teacher not only slept with the student Vili Fualaau but became pregnant with him.

The story begins at the public school in the Highline district of the city of Des Moines, near Seattle. Fualaau was 12 years old. They were discovered and Mary Kay was held accountable in a trial. He was accused of sexually abusing his student. While awaiting sentencing, in 1997, she gave birth to a baby girl who had been conceived with the student. Letourneau pleaded guilty to second-degree rape of minors and agreed not to approach Fualau again, allowing him to regain his freedom after serving only three months in jail. When he got out of bars, reality once again surpassed fiction: authorities discovered that Letourneau was meeting and having sex with Fualaau again. They were seen together in a car at 1:20 a.m. So he went back to prison, and this time, seven years. In this second stay she gave birth again to another girl of her student. "I'm very excited and anxious to see my next baby," the 15-year-old said.

Mary Kay Letourneau at the trialAP

The teacher was released from prison in 2004, with the same prohibition of contact 0, something she also violated. This time he was already 21 years old so he fought for her and went to court to see her. Letourneau said he was the love of his life.

For him this story was not that of an abused minor but another version of Romeo and Juliet. "I hope that when people think of her and her legacy, they think of how strong and brilliant and kind she was. And don't be seen as a child rapist," she said in a documentary aired in 2018. They tried to follow in the footsteps of any conventional love story. But it wasn't just any relationship. They married secretly in May 2005. Until in 2017, like any other love story, Fualaau requested separation. It wasn't until two years later that they divorced. Mary Kay Letourneau's husband went to Alaska with their four children after filing for divorce.

Neither divorced saw anything strange in his partner, the young man only assured that "it had not been a healthy relationship". A love that was immortalized by themselves. They wrote Un seul crime, l'amour (One crime, love).

"

Vili was thirteen years old. An adult in the body of a child (in the words of his mother), he vibrated with the energy of hatred and rebellion. Mary was his teacher, the first and only one who understood him. Despite family and school, against the law and against everyone, they loved each other."

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, getting marriedAP

The book was published in French. Also arriving in 2005 was the documentary, Mary Kay Letourneau: Memoirs of a Scandal. Also the film The Mary Kay Letourneau Story, in 2020. And now another, May December, by Todd Haynes, which uses the real story of the teacher and the student as a narrative hook. For Portman the appeal of this script is in the exception: "It is a crime usually carried out by men, now committed by a woman. That psychological leap is striking. And it happens because we have never seen on screen all the versions of a woman. For me, that would be achieving equity. We can be villains, athletes, fools, smart... And the more variety, the better," he said in an interview with El País.

Natalie Portman actingGTRES

Letourneau's evolution also had many faces. The teacher will not see the film because she died in 2020, at age 58, of colon cancer. Her then-ex-husband and close family members sent a joint statement on opening night confirming that Letourneau died after being diagnosed with metastatic cancer six months earlier. "Mary and all of us felt great strength in bringing our immediate and extended family members together to join her in this arduous struggle. We went out of we could to care for Mary and others while keeping her close and staying together," the letter said.

Letourneau defended his love until almost his last days of life. According to People magazine, Mary Kay Letourneau felt a "deep remorse." A friend of the teacher confessed what went through her mind when she saw death approaching: "She understood that she had really ruined her life and the lives of many people in 1996. She realized that although things went relatively well, she was responsible for a wide swath of destruction by her actions. And he apologized to a lot of people for a lot of things." She wrote many letters and managed to make peace with herself. It is unknown if one of the recipients was the one who was his student and father of his two daughters with 15 years.

Despite his constant advocacy, in September 2020, Fualaau appeared onThe Dr. Oz Show, where he shared what he would do if he was attracted to a minor: "I would probably go get help," Fualauau said. "I couldn't look at a 13-year-old and be drawn to it because it's just not in my brain. It's nothing that appeals to me. I mean, we all have our preferences, but that's not something I would do." Fualaau's current dedication is unknown, in social networks it does not exist. He doesn't share any personal information and has his Instagram account private. And if she appears, it is to talk about the one who was her teacher.

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