
Mary Kay Letourneau has died at the age of 58.
The controversial former teacher, who gained worldwide media attention for raping 12-year-old student Vili Fualaau and later marrying him, died of stage 4 cancer earlier this week.
Following the news, the Fualaau and Letourneau families have released a joint statement, sharing that they are "deeply saddened" by her death.
"Mary, and all of us, found great strength in having our immediate and extended family members together to join her in this arduous struggle. We did our very best to care for Mary and one another as we kept her close and stayed close together," the statement read.
"We are endlessly grateful for the care and kindness received from the amazing professionals involved in Mary's care. Likewise, the kindness and compassion of friends and others who learned of her condition along the way proved an uplifting gift to us all.
"It is in that spirit that we ask for privacy and respect for our desire to focus on the road ahead for all of us who make up Mary's collective family. We ask that our boundaries and need for privacy be honoured with continued kindness and understanding."
Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau's daughters opened up on Sunday Night in 2018. Post continues below.
In 1996, Mary Kay Letourneau was living a life that looked relatively normal.
At the time, the 34-year-old middle school teacher was living in Washington with her husband Steve Letourneau and their four children, Jacqueline, Mary Claire, Nicholas and Steven Jr.
But when Letourneau's husband found letters she had written to her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau, Letourneau soon gained infamy.
Letourneau first met the boy when he was in second grade at Shorewood Elementary School in the Seattle suburb of Burien.
Four years later, when Fualaau was just 12 or 13 years old, she began to rape him. The sixth-grade student was just one and a half years older than her eldest son.
"The incident was a late night that didn’t stop with a kiss," Letourneau told ABC of the first assault. "And I thought that it would and it didn’t."