Vili Fualaau, 12-year-old who Mary Kay Letourneau raped and then wed, 'lost a piece of himself' as ex-wife died
Vili Fualaau, the sixth-grade student who was sexually assaulted by his teacher Mary Kay Letourneau in the 1990s, reportedly "lost a piece of himself" when Letourneau died earlier this week, according to a friend. Letourneau, a then-married 34-year-old teacher in 1997, was found to have a sexual relationship with her student Fualaau, who was just 12 at the time. The teacher was imprisoned in the case, but the infamous pair eventually married in 2005 after she was released from jail. The couple, years later, filed for separation in 2017.
Letourneau passed away at the age of 58 at her home in Des Monies, Washington, on Monday, July 7. The former teacher's demise came after a nine-month battle with stage four colon cancer. Although Letourneau and Fualaau's controversial romance did not last, during the three years since their separation, the pair reportedly remained close to each other and "still had a lot of love for one another," the friend said.
"They didn't speak every day, but she would update him on her cancer treatment," a source told PEOPLE. "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, Letourneau’s cancer, by June, had spread rapidly and she "began saying her goodbyes," Fualaau's friend, who wished to remain anonymous, said. "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." When Letourneau was in prison, she became pregnant with Fualaau's baby twice, the latter at the time was just 15-years-old. The couple, at the time, had continued to meet despite court orders to keep away from each other. The pair share two daughters together, Georgina and Audrey.
"He lost a piece of himself," the friend told the outlet. "He understands how f***ed 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."
Fualaau, during the final stages of Letourneau's life, reportedly gave the 58-year-old around-the-clock care. Letourneau's friend and longtime attorney David Gehrke, in an interview with TODAY on Wednesday, July 8, said that Fualaau uprooted his life to provide care for Letourneau.
"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," he said. "So yes, they were divorced and they had their spats, but they were always in love with each other. He knew that this was Mary's end coming, fast moving, and for her sake and the family's sake, and for his sake, he came back up and was with her, and it meant the world to her," Gehrke said. "And I know it meant the world to Vili, as painful as it was,' 'Their marriage lasted longer than most,' he continued. 'But they always, always deeply cared for each other."