Mary Kay Letourneau's Death Has Twitter Discussing Her Controversial Life

Tuesday's news that Mary Kay Letourneau had died at the age of 58 has many social media users [...]

By Allison Schonter

Tuesday's news that Mary Kay Letourneau had died at the age of 58 has many social media users reflecting on her controversial life and the crimes that landed her behind bars. In 1996, at the age of 34, Letourneau gained national infamy and her life was put under the spotlight after she was caught in an illicit relationship with a former 12-year-old student-turned-husband, Vili Fualaau.

Their highly publicized relationship began with a kiss in 1996 when Faulaau was in sixth grade. That kiss, which Letourneau later described as feeling "very right," soon led to a sexual relationship that became public after Letourneau's then-husband found a love note written to Letourneau from Fualaau. Letourneau would go to jail not once, but twice, receiving a light sentence of six months in jail with three of those months suspended after she pleaded guilty to felony second-degree rape of a child and the second sentence of seven years in prison after she was caught having sex with Fualaau in a car. By the time Faulaau was 15, Letourneau had become pregnant with his child twice. They later married and raised their two daughters together, though they later separated.

After Letourneau's attorney David Gehrke, who had represented her on the case, confirmed that she had died of stage 4 cancer, social media erupted in the discussion, many reflecting on the controversial case and the way in which the relationship and Letourneau's crimes had been portrayed. Keep scrolling to see what social media had to say.

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