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Dec 1, 2023 · And after a year, he started to say, ‘Your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to, and so I believed him,” she recalled. 7. Felicity Huffman broke her silence ...
Feb 26, 2024 · William H. Macy is shamelessly in love with his family. Five years after he, wife Felicity Huffman and their daughters Sophia, 23, and Georgia, 21, were at the center of the college admission ...
- 3 min
- Overview
- 'It felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it'
- Time of service
Actor Felicity Huffman said that she is left with "undying shame" that she paid $15,000 to falsify her daughter's SAT score, but that at the time she felt it was the only way to give her child a promising future.
The "Desperate Housewives" star broke her silence on the Operation Varsity Blues scandal — a $25 million bribery and fraud scheme exposed in 2019 that involved wealthy parents and celebrities who paid to get their children into elite colleges through edited scores or fake sports scholarships.
"It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future," Huffman said in an exclusive interview with KABC in Los Angeles. "And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law."
Huffman was accused of paying $15,000 to college fixer Rick Singer to cheat on her daughter Sophia Grace Macy’s SAT in 2017.
The day of the SAT test, Huffman recalled, she was feeling wracked with fear as her daughter didn't know about the plan to falsify her score.
"She was going, 'Can we get ice cream afterwards? I'm scared about the test. What can we do that’s fun?' And I kept thinking, turn around, just turn around. And to my undying shame, I didn’t," the Oscar nominee said.
Huffman said she reached out to Singer, a college counselor considered the mastermind of Operation Varsity Blues, but didn’t intend to break the law.
"After a year, he started to say your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to," she said. "And I believed him."
"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. 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," Huffman added.
When the FBI arrived at her door, Huffman said, she was in disbelief.
Huffman served her community service hours with A New Way of Life, a nonprofit organization founded by Susan Burton that helps formerly incarcerated women reintegrate into society with housing, clothing and job training. When her court-ordered hours were up, she joined the board of the organization.
"I said, 'I’m here to apply to work but I understand if you don’t want me.' And Susan looked at me and said, 'I want you!'" Huffman recalled.
Burton said Huffman came ready to do the hard work.
"I thought we would bring her in and put her at a desk and have her work in the office. And she said, 'No. I want to do real work,'" Burton said. "She just organized all of our closets and donations. She went jogging down Central Avenue in South LA and created exercise classes for the women."
"Felicity Huffman is one of the most beautiful people I’ve met in my lifetime. And I know she has had a hiccup. But it’s not the hiccup — it’s how you come through the hiccup," she added.
For Huffman, her service with the group is the silver lining of the scandal.
- Marlene Lenthang
- Breaking News Reporter
Dec 1, 2023 · Huffman pleaded guilty in May 2019 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, served 11 days of a 14-day prison sentence and was ordered to do 250 hours of community ...
Dec 1, 2023 · Felicity Huffman on why she ‘had to break the law' in 1st interview since college admissions scandal The "Desperate Housewives" actor pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2019 and served 11 days ...
Feb 6, 2024 · Felicity Huffman is still working out how she feels about life after her 2019 criminal conviction. The former Desperate Housewives star told The Guardian this week that things have “been hard ...
Dec 1, 2023 · 320. Felicity Huffman after she was sentenced to prison in 2019. (AFP/Getty Images) Felicity Huffman is speaking out about the college admissions scandal, more than four years after she served ...
