Felicity Huffman is speaking out for the very first time about her role in the 2019 college admissions scandal that resulted in her serving 11 days in prison.
“It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future. And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law,” Huffman told Los Angeles-based ABC7 Eyewitness News during a sit-down interview.
The “Desperate Housewives” star recalled meeting with William “Rick” Singer, a fraudulent college admissions consultant, who had convinced Huffman that her daughter wouldn’t get into any of the colleges she wanted to attend.
“And I believed him. And 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,” she explained. “And 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 pleaded guilty in May 2019 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. She served 11 days of a 14-day prison sentence and was fined $30,000 and ordered to do 250 hours of community service.
“I think the people I owe a debt and apology to is the academic community,” Huffman said elsewhere in her interview. “And to the students and the families that sacrifice and work really hard to get to where they are going legitimately.”
Watch the full interview below, via YouTube:
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