Felicity Huffmanis opening up for the first time about her role in the headline-makingcollege admissions scandal.
In an interview withABC-7 Eyewitness Newsthat aired Thursday, the 60-year-oldDesperate Housewivesstar and Oscar-nominated actress reflected on the criminal conspiracy, in which dozens of wealthy parents of high school students — including celebrity moms like Huffman andLori Loughlin— were charged with using bribery, cheating and other forms of illegal fraud to fake their kids' way into elite colleges and universities like Yale, USC, and Georgetown.
The scam unraveled thanks, in part, to the government’s criminal investigation, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.” Back in 2019, Huffmanserved 11 days in jailafter paying $15,000 toconvicted scandal mastermind William “Rick” Singerfor the results of her daughter’s SAT exam to be falsified.
Looking back on it, Huffman explained the reasoning that drove her to commit the crime.
“People assume that I went into this looking for a way to cheat the system and making proverbial criminal deals in back alleys, but that was not the case,” she said. “I worked with a highly recommended college counselor named Rick Singer. I worked with him for a year and trusted him implicitly; he recommended programs and tutors and he was the expert. 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.”
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty
She continued, “When he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seemed like — and I know this seems crazy at the time — that 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.”
“It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future,” she said. “And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law.”
William H. Macy, daughter Georgia Macy, Actress Felicity Huffman and daughter Sofia Macy in October 2014.Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
The actress — who says she did not tell her daughter Sophia about her plans — recalled having second thoughts about what she had done as she drove her to the exam. “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,’ " Huffman told the news outlet. “To my undying shame, I didn’t.”
Huffmanpleaded guiltyto paying to have a proctor change her daughterSophia’s answers in the exam. At the time of sentencing in September 2019, Huffman wrote to a judge to protest that she was only thinking about her daughter’s future when she participated in the scheme.
Her husband,ShamelessstarWilliam H. Macy, was not charged in relation to the event. Her daughter Sophia later retook the SAT and wasaccepted into Carnegie Mellon University’s theatre program, where she is currently studying.
Rick Singer.Scott Eisen/Getty
Meanwhile,Singer was sentencedto three-and-a-half years in prison for his crimes. He was ordered to forfeit $10 million in January of this year.
Felicity Huffman in December 2022.SplashNews
SplashNews
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As for Huffman, she’s speaking out now to shine a light onA New Way of Life, the nonprofit that provides aid like housing, job training, and clothing to formerly incarcerated women.
“I want to use my experience and what I’ve gone through and the pain to bring something good,” she told ABC-7 of the organization, where she did her court-ordered community service.
source: people.com
