Teacher Who Slept With/Married Student, Mary Kay Letourneau, Dead at 58

Mary Kay Letourneau – a former Seattle middle school teacher, who made headlines in 1996 due to her relationship with one of her students, has passed away at 58 years old.

Letourneau Loses Battle With Cancer

58-year-old Mary Kay Letourneau passed away after a nine-month long battle with stage four colon cancer, her lawyer David Gerhke told TMZ on Tuesday.

The former teacher made shocking headlines in 1996, when her sexual relationship with then-12-year-old student Vili Fualaau was revealed. At the time, Letourneau was a married mother of four, when she began her relationship with Fualaau. Shortly after, the two’s relationship was discovered by her husband in February 1997, as Steve Letourneau – her ex-husband, discovered love letters penned to one another.

After confronting the young Fuaalau, the student was going to end the relationship out of fear that Steve would tell his parents and relatives as he warned him, although one of Letourneau’s relatives had already informed school authorities of the affair, leading to Mary Letourneau’s arrest.

Letourneau initially served three months in jail as part of a plea agreement, in which she agreed to no longer contact Fuaalau, at which time she was pregnant. After her parole in 1998, the woman was once again found in contact with Fualaau, this time leading to her serving a seven-year sentence on second-degree child rape charges. The woman gave birth to Fualaau’s second child while in prison.

After her release, the two shocked the world once again, as Letourneau and Fualaau married in 2005, until Fualaau filed for divorce 12 years later. Despite their separation, which was finalized in February last year, Fualaau was revealed to have been caring for Letourneau 24 hours a day in her final moments.

The woman had been in hospice care for her last month, with Fualaau by her side the entire time. Letourneau is survived by her four children with her first husband Steve Letourneau, and her two daughters with Fualaau – Georgina and Audrey.