If Netflix’s May December rings bells for those of us old enough to remember tabloids of the late ‘90s, that isn’t a coincidence. The film is loosely based on the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau, who initiated a “relationship” with Vili Fualaau when she was 34 and he was 12. The movie, which can be difficult to watch, had us wondering about Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau today. How did Letourneau’s case inspire May December? Here’s what you need to know about the notorious case and this latest iteration of the story.
May December is about an actress getting to know a notorious couple.
The movie follows Elizabeth, an actress slated to play Gracie Atherton-Yoo, a Georgia woman who became notorious in the ‘90s for having an inappropriate relationship with her 13-year-old co-worker (and son’s best friend) when she was 36. Elizabeth travels to Savannah to meet Gracie and Joe, her victim turned husband. The pair have been married for almost 24 years and are preparing to send their youngest children to college.
Elizabeth spends time getting to know Gracie and Joe as well as Gracie’s ex-husband, her son Georgie (from her first marriage), and her lawyer during the trial that ultimately sent her to prison, where she gave birth to the couple’s first daughter (now in college). The more she learns, however, the more stand-offish Gracie becomes and the more vulnerable Joe allows himself to be. Joe begins to question the nature of his relationship with his wife, pointing out (to her anger) that he was only 13 and perhaps too young to have fully consented to anything.
The movie concludes with Gracie and Joe on uncertain ground and Elizabeth playing Gracie in the movie as planned.
Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau were a tabloid scandal in the late ‘90s.
In 1996, Letourneau, a school teacher and married mother of four began to groom and sexually abuse 12-year-old Vili Fualaau. The boy was infatuated with Letourneau as she was with him, and the two continued what they described as an “affair” until Letourneau was arrested in March 1997 on two counts of second-degree child rape. She gave birth to Fualaau’s daughter while awaiting sentencing. Through a plea agreement, she was given a six month sentence (with three months suspended) in county jail and three years of sex offender treatment. She was not permitted to be in contact with children, including her own children and Fualaau.
And yet within two weeks of completing her jail sentence, police found her alone in a car with Fualaau. As a result, a judge revoked Letourneau’s prior plea agreement and she was sent to Washington Corrections Center for Women on a seven-and-a-half year sentence where she gave birth to her second daughter by Fualaau in October 1998.
Fualaau’s mother was granted custody of his two children, and he — mired in depression and suicidal ideation and at least one attempt — dropped out of high school.
The pair married after her second stint in prison and divorced 14 years later.
By the time Letourneau was released from prison in 2004, Fualaau was an adult. He persuaded the court to lift the no-contact order against Letourneau and the pair began a legal relationship. They were married in May 2005, when she was 43 and he was 21.
On May 9, 2017, after almost 12 years of marriage, Fualaau filed for separation from Letourneau. Though he later withdrew the petition, the pair legally separated in August 2019. Sources at the time reported to People that, for the first time, Fualaau had begun to identify their relationship as “unhealthy ... from the start.”
“After the split,” the source told the magazine, “he started really going over things in his mind, just thinking about how they met, and how that affected how they interacted as adults. He was never really a full-fledged partner; he was always secondary. He sees that now. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, but he’s feeling that for the first time, he’s being like a real grown adult. That feels good for him.”
Letourneau died in 2020 after a six month battle with colorectal cancer.
Vili Fualaau welcomed a child in 2022 and will soon be a grandfather.
While Fualaau (understandably) likes to keep a low profile, we do know from his second daughter Georgia’s (private) Instagram account that he welcomed a third daughter in 2022. The post, which was reported by People showed a picture of the newborn at the hospital and read “Hi Sophia, I’m your big sister! You’re so beautiful, I can’t wait to watch you grow. I’ll be right here by your side no matter what ! I love you.”
In September 2023, Georgia, 24, confirmed her own pregnancy to People. She said that while Fualaau was initially surprised by this news, he and her older sister Audrey is excited and supportive. “They have been with me at almost every appointment,” Georgia told the magazine. “They have just been my rocks ... he’s already buying baby stuff for me and giving me hand-me-downs from my baby sister, which is nice. I just know that he’s going to be the greatest grandfather ever.”
Fualaau turned 40 years old in June 2023.
The Letourneau case differs from May December in a few details.
A lot of the details in May December, from Joe’s complicated feelings about his relationship with his wife years to Gracie’s ongoing belief that she’d done nothing wrong parallel details of the Letourneau case. But some elements of the movie changed from real life events. Joe’s character is Korean-American while Fualaau is Samoan-American. The movie is set in Georgia whereas Letourneau and Fualaau lived in Washington. The biggest departure from reality is that in May December, Gracie and Joe begin their “affair” while employed at a local pet shop together. In reality, Mary Kay Letourneau was Vili Fualaau’s second and sixth grade teacher.
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