Warning: The following article mentions child sexual abuse. Please read with caution.
There might be plenty of situations in which “I didn’t know it was a crime” flies as an excuse, but it’s hard to believe Mary Kay Letourneau didn’t understand the implications of her affair with a boy less than half her age. After all, it’s fairly common knowledge that sexual relations between a 34-year-old schoolteacher and a 12-year-old student will end with criminal charges, and a slew of true crime documentaries.
The affair may have ended in groomer-shaped bliss for the couple (who remained married for 14 years once Mary Kay was released from her second stint in prison) but it’s hard not to feel for Steve Letourneau. Not only did his ex-wife keep his last name, but she publicly claimed to have “never loved him at all.” In the wake of one of the worst divorces of all time, we’re hopeful that rumors are true Letourneau managed to find happiness.
Who is Steve Letourneau? His early life and marriage to Mary Kay.
Steve Letourneau was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1963. He pursued his higher education at Arizona State University, where he first met Mary Kay. By design, not much is known about Letourneau or his kids’ lives. He disliked the idea of his children being exposed to the media and filed for divorce, as well as full custody of their children after Mary Kay was sent to prison for child rape in 1999. Why he didn’t file after her first three months might have had something to do with an attempted return to the status quo, but after Mary Kay was caught with he student yet again, Letourneau called it quits.
According to those close to the couple, their marriage was rocky long before the affair crime. Both halves of the couple had allegedly engaged in extramarital affairs before the split, and they were suffering from financial problems. Mary Kay’s attorney claimed that Steve was “emotionally and physically” abusive towards his ex-partner. She was allegedly hospitalized more than once, and though cops were called, she never pressed charges.
Steve Letourneau was granted full custody of the couple’s four children during the divorce. Their eldest son, Steve Jr., was just 2 years younger than his soon-to-be stepfather. If it wasn’t enough to have the media blast the family’s business across the air during the trial, while she was imprisoned Mary Kay and Vili Fualaau wrote a biography about their affair. In it, she included an anecdote about how she had never truly loved her first husband, but had been pressured into marriage by her staunchly religious parents.
For his part, Steve has remained incredibly quiet. In a rare interview, he spoke on his ex-wife’s arrest in 1997 saying, “She was a wife, loving wife, good person. But does a good mom do what she did? Does a good teacher do what she did? Does a good wife do what she did? No.”
Where is Steve Letourneau now?
Steve Letourneau walked away from the spotlight as fast as he could. He returned to his home state of Alaska, where he reportedly found work at American Airlines and as a salesman. According to those close to him, he hasn’t spoken much about his late ex-wife (who can blame him) and has focused instead on raising their children. He remarried Kelly Whalen some years later. Whalen supported him during the early years following the case, and commented after Mary Kay was impregnated a second time, lamenting the psychological state of the couple’s children, “Our emotional level was just coming to a plateau. Our psychologist is saying their concept of love has been shattered.”
Whalen and Letourneau went on to have two more children, both daughters. The couple divorced some years later. Steve Letourneau has allegedly remarried since then, but after years of learning how to hide from prying eyes, it seems he’s finally mastered staying out of the limelight. Netflix‘s series, May December is loosely based on this true crime tale.
