Vili Fualaau, widower of convicted child rapist Mary Kay Letourneau, does not approve of a recently released movie inspired by their sordid relationship.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fualaau, 40, slammed the 2023 Netflix film “May December” about an actress who researches a married couple’s “scandalous relationship” for a movie.
“I’m still alive and well. If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story,” he said in a statement.
He added, “I’m offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me — who lived through a real story and is still living it.”
In the film, actor Charles Melton, who played the character of “Joe,” was 13 years old when he was initially allured by Julianne Moore’s character, Gracie, who was 36.
The film’s screenwriter Samy Burch confirmed the film was inspired by the court case of Fualaau and Letourneau.
In 1997, Letourneau, who was 34 years old at the time, was arrested and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for the statutory rape of her then 13-year-old student Fualaau, according to Biography.
In 1997, Letourneau gave birth to Fualaau’s daughter, Audrey, while in prison. The couple’s second daughter, Georgia, was born in 1998.
In July 2022, Letourneau died after a battle with stage 4 cancer. She was 58, according to People.
Following her death, Fualaau along with the rest of Letourneau’s family, released a statement shared by writer Danielle Bacher on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Mary fought tirelessly against this terrible disease,” the statement reads. “Mary, and all of us, found great strength in having our immediate and extended family members together to join her in this arduous struggle.”
The statement continued, “We did our very best to care for Mary and one another as we kept her close and stayed close together.”