Lori Loughlin: ‘Today’ Interview With Daughter About College Resurfaces

An old interview with Fuller House actress Lori Loughlin and her daughter, Isabella Giannulli, resurfaced hours after Loughlin was named in a nationwide college admissions cheating scam Tuesday.

In the Today show interview from 2017, Loughlin and Isabella sit with co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford and chat about Isabella’s upcoming freshman year of college at USC.

“She’s not going to go far, but my husband keeps saying, ‘Lori, you’re not gonna see her so just be prepared,’” Loughlin said in the clip. “I think I’m in complete denial, I really am, because when I think about it too much it will make me cry.”

Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were among 46 people federal prosecutors say paid up to $6 million in bribes to ensure their children’s admission into top tier universities like Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and USC.

In the clip, Isabella confirms her plans to study acting at USC. “I just love all of it. I’d be happy to do anything,” she said, adding that her mother “helped me with so many auditions, which is so nice.”

The two had recently filmed a Hallmark movie together called Homegrown Christmas, but Loughlin remarked that Isabella was still new to the profession.

“She’s so new, so she’s just — it takes time. And you have to know, nine times out of 10, even higher, you’re not gonna get the job,” she said of the selective audition process.

Loughlin was expected to surrender to authorities on Tuesday after she returned to the United States from overseas. In the meantime, she deleted all of her social media accounts.

According to court documents, Loughlin and her husband “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.”

Parents involved in the alleged scam allegedly gave donations to William Rick Singer’s Key Worldwide Foundation in exchange for illegal activity, such as altering ACT and SAT test scores and bribing college coaches so their children could gain admission as recruited athletes in sports they didn’t play, so as to guarantee admission to top colleges.

Singer and several coaches pleaded guilty on Tuesday.

Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman was also named in the nationwide indictment; she was arrested Tuesday and released on a $250,000 bail after surrendering her passport. She did not have to enter a plea on Tuesday and will next appear in court on March 29.

According to the indictment, 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.

Huffman’s husband, Shameless actor William H. Macy, was not named in the indictment, but did join his wife in making a charitable donation of $15,000 “to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her oldest daughter,” according to the affidavit.

Photo credit: Gregg DeGuire / Contributor / Getty