Letourneau engaged to 21-year-old former student

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) — Mary Kay Letourneau, the former schoolteacher jailed for more than seven years for having sex with a 13-year-old student, says she and the now-grown former student are engaged to be married.

Letourneau, appearing Monday night on "Larry King Live," also said that, at the time, she didn't know that having sex with a sixth-grader was a felony. Letourneau was 34 when the relationship began, in 1996.

The former student, Vili Fualaau, is now 21. LeTourneau is the mother of his two children.

LeTourneau was released from a prison in Washington state two months ago.

She told King that she and Fualaau "have a time frame but not a specific date" for their wedding.

The former schoolteacher made international headlines when she was arrested not once but twice for her relationship with the underage boy. After her first arrest, LeTourneau pleaded guilty to second-degree child rape and was sentenced to six months in jail.

With credit for time served and good behavior, LeTourneau was released early but ordered not to have contact with the boy.

Just weeks later, a police officer came upon the pair in a parked car. A judge reimposed Letourneau's original 89-month sentence.

When the relationship with Fualaau began, LeTourneau was separated from her husband, with whom she had four children.

She also said that she and Fualaau, from the beginning of their relationship, have always shared "a deep spiritual oneness."

"We had a really compatible sense of humor," she said. "And just our perspective on life ..."

LeTourneau, who told King she hopes to begin working with incarcerated women, said she believes her life had been "blessed."

"I'm healthy," she said. "My children are healthy. And I still have a mother. And I come from a very loving family. And I have Vili."