Felicity Huffman breaks her silence: Now the actress tells why she became a criminal for her daughter’s college admission.
Felicity Huffman, 60, has spoken out for the first time about her role in the college admissions scandal that ultimately landed her in prison. The Oscar-nominated actress explained: “People assume that I was looking for a way to cheat the system and that I was literally doing criminal business in back alleys, but that wasn’t the case.”
Huffmann was convicted of paying $15,000 to Rick Singer, the mastermind of the fraud scheme. He ensured that her daughter’s exam results were falsified. Now Huffman explained that she saw Singer as a renowned college advisor whom she trusted implicitly.
“I felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it”
“After a year he started saying, ‘Your daughter won’t be accepted to any of the colleges she wants to attend.’ And so I believed him,” she explains her decision. At the time, paying the bribe seemed like the only way to give her daughter “a chance at a future.” She continues: “I felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it. So I did it.” On the way to the exam, the actress was plagued by a guilty conscience, she remembers: “I kept thinking ‘turn around, just turn around’, but to my shame I didn’t do it.”
The “Desperate Housewives” actress served 11 days of her 14-day sentence in prison in October 2019. She was also sentenced to 250 hours of community service and one year of probation.
Her husband, “Shameless” star William H. Macy, 73, has not been charged in connection with the incident. Her daughter, who is said to have been unaware of the bribe, later retook the test and was accepted into the theater program at Carnegie Mellon University, where she is currently studying.
Singer is said to have made $25 million
Rick Singer was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in January. He had helped numerous celebrities and wealthy parents get their children into elite universities despite their lack of achievements. His customers also included “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin (59) and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli (60). Singer is said to have received a total of more than $25 million for his illegal services.
Source: Stern
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