Huffman was found guilty of paying a $15,000 donation to a fake charity to improve her daughter's SAT points.
Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman found herself in the middle of a huge college scandal back in 2019, that left her relationship with her daughters in tatters.
Her husband, actor William H. Macy wrote a letter to Judge Indira Talwani, supporting Huffman during her sentencing and revealed that the scandal "exploded" her relationship with her daughters after the reports of her involvement hit the news. “Rebuilding that relationship will be a long process. But I also want you to know Felicity has raised two amazing young women,” reported People.
Sophia, the couple's 20-year-old daughter "paid the dearest price," wrote Macy, as she was banned from entering her college of choice which ironically doesn't require SAT scores for admission. “She called us from the airport in hysterics, begging us to ‘do something, please, please do something.’”
“From the devastation of that day, Sophia is slowly regaining her equilibrium and getting on with her life. She still doesn’t like to sleep alone and has nightmares from the FBI agents waking her that morning with guns drawn,” Macy further elaborated.
Huffman pled guilty to fixing Sophia's SAT scores in May 2019. According to the court documents, William Singer who is the root of the entire scandal, met Huffman and Macy before the 2017 SAT's and "advised Huffman and her spouse that he 'controlled' a testing center, and could arrange for a third party to purport to proctor their daughter’s SAT and secretly correct her answers afterwards."
As a result, Sophia received "a score of 1420 on the SAT, an improvement of approximately 400 points over her PSAT." The couple then made a $15,000 donation to Singer's fake charity, Key Worldwide Foundation. After the payment was made, Huffman and Macy received a text that read, "[the donation] would 'allow us to move forward with our plans to provide educational and self-enrichment programs to disadvantaged youth.'"
According to Macy, even though it was "wonderful" to see Huffman transform into a mother, she was always worried about being a good mom, more since both of them are Hollywood stars. "Motherhood has, from the very beginning, frightened Felicity and she has not carried being a mom easily. She’s struggled to find the balance between what the experts say and her common sense.”
He also pointed out that the couple tried to keep their kids away from the high life of Hollywood as much as they could. “We decided to keep them as far away from our business as possible,” said he, adding that they even kept Sofia and their younger daughter Georgia, 18, away from events and paparazzi. He stressed that even though the whole college admission scam was a huge mistake from Huffman, it was still a mother trying to be there for her girls.
“There is much to be done, and some of the hurt and anger will take years to work through, but we are making progress. Thank you, Your Honor. If I may I’d like to tell you one more thing: every good thing in my life is because of Felicity Huffman,” penned Macy.
Huffman wrote her own apology letter to the judge that included notes of support from 27 people, including co-star Eva Longoria. In the letter, she mentioned that her “desperation to be a good mother” was the reason she found herself in the scam.
"I talked myself into believing that all I was doing was giving my daughter a fair shot. I see the irony in that statement now because what I have done is the opposite of fair. I have broken the law, deceived the educational community, betrayed my daughter, and failed my family.”
According to Town and Country, the actress was sentenced to 14 days in prison with the fine set at $30,000 along with 250 hours of community service, after she pled guilty to all the charges against her. Months later, she was released on the 13th day of her sentence as a prison policy allows inmates to be released prior to their scheduled date, if that date falls on a weekend. On October 25, she completed her full sentence and is now looking forward to getting back to acting.
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