Vili Fualaau formally filed for separation from his wife and former teacher, Mary Kay Letourneau, who was proven guilty of two counts of felony second-degree rape of her then-student. Fualaau was then 12, while the sixth-grade instructor was 34 when the sexual affair took place.
A timeline of Fualaau and Letourneau's forbidden relationship
Letourneau was sentenced to six months in prison, three months suspension, and was given a no-contact order with her underage student after their forbidden love was made public. Before she was even arrested for the case, the teacher found out that she was pregnant with Fualaau's child.
She gave birth to their first child while she was out on bail.
A month after spending six months behind bars, the teacher violated the no-contact order after she was spotted with Fualaau inside a car. As a result, she was re-sentenced to a maximum of seven years in jail for breaching a condition of her plea agreement.
The schoolteacher served her sentence from 1998 to 2004. But before her second arrest, it was revealed that Letourneau was carrying her second child with her former student. Following her release, Fualaau requested the court to nullify the no-contact order and married his teacher a year later.
What went wrong?
Earlier reports said Faulaau was the one who initiated the separation.
The father-of-two formally submitted the separation papers on May 9 in Washington. Since the separation is still underway, Faulaau's attorney, Whitney Gardner, said her client wants to delay his statement until the split is settled.
A source close to the controversial couple said the two have been "having issues" before the husband decided to end his decade-long marriage with Letourneau.
Although they tried to work things out, the estranged couple eventually broke up and promised to co-parent their two daughters, Audrey and Georgia.
In his separation filing, Faulaau asked for an equal division of their joint assets. Rumor has it that the businessman wanted the separation to clear his background to get a license as a "Cigaweed" distributor.
His lawyer, however, denied that the split has something to do with Faulaau's business interests.
Letourneau, on the other hand, is currently working as a legal assistant. She has not returned to teaching due to her criminal records. Similarly, the former instructor divorced her first husband in the midst of her controversial affair with her then-student.
