How Lori Loughlin Spent Her 55th Birthday Amid College Admissions Scandal

Actress Lori Loughlin recently celebrated her 55th birthday amid the college admissions scandal, and we now know how she spent the day. The former Full House star’s big day was Sunday, July 28, and according to Us Weekly, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli attended an 8:30 a.m. Mass at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. “They were seen walking up to the front of the church to receive the Eucharist,” the source told Us Weekly. “They appeared to be regulars at that Mass as nobody bothered them and they kept to themselves.”

A day later, Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade took to Instagram to wish her mother “happy birthday,” sharing a sweet throwback photo of the two of them from when Olivia was a baby.

“One day late. happy birthday. i love you so much,” she wrote in the posts caption, then adding a heart emoji. This is Olivia’s first post since February, shortly before news of the admissions scandal broke.

Following accusations that the couple participated in a scam to get their daughters into college by bypassing the appropriate guidelines. Loughlin and Giannulli pleaded not guilty, and were later slapped with money laundering charges.

In legal documents explaining the investigation and arrests, a press release on the case from U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts read, “Dozens of individuals involved in a nationwide conspiracy that facilitated cheating on college entrance exams and the admission of students to elite universities as purported athletic recruits were arrested by federal agents in multiple states and charged in documents unsealed on March 12, 2019, in federal court in Boston.”

According to legal documents, Loughlin and Giannulli “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew — thereby facilitating their admission to USC.”

After the money laundering charges, a separate source spoke out about how the family was handling things, saying, “Lori still believed in the end she would just get a slap on the wrist. At this point she is getting complete clarity and she’s scared and in terrible shape.”

“The reality of this situation has finally hit her like a ton of bricks,” the insider added. “It wasn’t until she was faced with [the] additional [charge] that she saw the true ramifications.”

“She is going through the worst time of her life,” the source continued. “It feels like her whole world is falling apart. She is putting all her trust in her team and her lawyers, and hoping for the best.”

Loughlin and Giannulli are not expected to go to trial until sometime in 2020.