Felicity Huffman has finally broken her silence on the 2019 college admissions scandal, admitting in an interview with ABC7 Eyewitness News that she knew it was “crazy” at the time. The actress revealed that she had been working with college counselor William “Rick” Singer, who was later convicted for being the mastermind behind the scheme, and trusted him implicitly.
She explained: “He recommended programs and tutors, and he was the expert. And after a year, he started to say, ‘Your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to,’ and so I believed him.”
Huffman confessed that she felt like she had no other option but to break the law in order to give her daughter a chance at a future. She pleaded guilty in May 2019 to paying $15,000 to falsify her daughter’s SAT scores.
Reflecting on the moment she drove her daughter to take the exam, Huffman admitted to having second thoughts, saying: “She was going, ‘Can we get ice cream afterwards? I’m scared about the test. What can we do that’s fun?’ And I kept thinking, ‘Turn around, just turn around.’ To my undying shame, I didn’t.”
Huffman was arrested in 2019
The actress was arrested in March 2019 as part of Operation Varsity Blues, along with other prominent parents and celebrities, including Lori Loughlin. Huffman recalled the shocking moment when the FBI showed up at her house, saying, “[The FBI] came into my home. They woke my daughters up at gunpoint. I thought it was a hoax. I literally turned to one of the FBI people, in a flak jacket and a gun, and I went, ‘Is this a joke?'”
While looking back on her role in the scandal, Huffman apologized to the academic community and the students who work hard to achieve their goals legitimately. She was sentenced to 14 days in prison, a $30,000 fine, and 250 hours of community service. However, she only served 11 days behind bars and used her time to volunteer at A New Way of Life, an organization dedicated to helping formerly incarcerated women rebuild their lives.
Huffman’s daughter Sophia eventually gained admission to Carnegie Mellon University‘s theatre program in April 2020 after retaking the SAT on her own. Huffman and her husband, William H. Macy, who was not charged in connection to the scheme, have two daughters together.
In reflecting on her experience, Huffman expressed admiration for the work of A New Way of Life, stating, “They heal one woman at a time – and if you heal one woman, you heal her children, you heal her grandchildren and you heal the community.”