Kelly Ripa weighed in on the college admissions scandal involving Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin earlier this week on Live With Kelly and Ryan.
The 48-year-old told co-host Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday that despite the college application process being a “nightmare,” the bribery scandal is a “shame.”
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“Let me tell you something. As a parent who has gone through this process twice so far, test-taking is a nightmare,” the mom of three said. “It is so exhausting … for the student, for the parents, for everybody involved. Particularity if you are my kids’ tutor, I would think it would be exhausting for you as well. You look at this and you go, ‘If you have the money to afford a tutor, you already have an advantage.’”
Ripa and husband Mark Consuelos share kids Michael, 21, Lola, 17, and Joaquin, 16.
“The whole thing is a shame and it’s robbing the kids the chance for them to achieve [getting in] on their own,” she said. “I’m so glad this scandal broke after my kids went through [the college application process] because I know my daughter would have been like, ‘Hey, can you call that man?’”
Ripa pointed out that she believes you can still succeed without going to an Ivy League university, but that it’s hard for her to show her kids how important higher education is since she didn’t go to college.
“I did not go to college, so I always feel weird saying this,” she admitted. “And it’s a tightrope line I walk with my kids all the time because they’ll look at me and be like, ‘But you didn’t go to college.’ But this is all good luck and hard work.”
Loughlin and Huffman were just two of the 50 people named in the federal investigation, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.” Loughlin and her husband, famous designer Mossimo Giannulli, were charged with mail fraud in Tuesday’s indictment. Loughlin was brought into federal custody Wednesday and released on the same day after a judge set both of their bails at $1,000,000. Variety reports that the bond is secured against the couple’s home, as well as other assets.
Huffman is also charged with mail fraud and was in federal custody Tuesday. She was released the same day on a $250,000 bail and had to surrender her passport. She will next appear in Boston court on March 29.
According to earlier reports, Huffman made a “charitable contribution” of $15,000 to participate in a college exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter. The actress also allegedly paid an undisclosed amount to an individual who “controlled” a Los Angeles SAT testing center to fix her daughter’s incorrect exam answers.
Loughlin and Giannulli allegedly paid a $500,000 bribe to have their two daughters, including YouTube star Olivia Jade, labeled as rowers on the USC‘s crew team in order to gain admission.
In all, the FBI claims that the group of wealthy parents paid up to $6 million to ensure admission for their children into top schools. The scam includes allegedly faking SAT and ACT scores and paying college coaches to lie and designate students as athletic recruits.
