Mary Kay Letourneau Used Breast Milk Bottles to Send Notes to Vili Fualaau

A new documentary on Discovery Plus takes a new look at the scandalous life of Mary Kay Letourneau, the married school teacher who in 1996 embarked on an affair with Vili Fualaau, a sixth-grade student attending the Shorewood Elementary School in Burien, Wash.

Letourneau became the subject of heated scrutiny, with many criticizing the thirty-something mother-of-two for sexually assaulting the young teenager. But how do the milk bottle notes come into the picture?

Letourneau was pursuing an adult relationship with Vili. At one point, the police found them together inside Letourneau's van. Letourneau pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree child rape in 1997. She gave birth to her first daughter with Vili while awaiting sentencing. She landed a seven-year sentence, giving birth to their second daughter while in prison. Letourneau used the breast milk bottles to sneak out notes to Vili.

The trailer of Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes on a Scandal addresses the inventive strategy, with several interviewees volunteering details about how Letourneau managed to sneak out letters to her Vili. Apparently, the notes were hidden in the lid. As one woman points out in the trailer, they would vary greatly in tone, with some more pensive and some less.

The milk bottle notes allowed Letourneau and Vili to stay in touch while Letourneau was serving the prison sentence. She left jail in August 2004. She married Vili in May 2005, the year he turned 21. The marriage lasted for 14 years. Letourneau and Vili announced their split in April 2019, finalizing the divorce by August 2019.

Like A Very British Scandal, the three-part TV series exploring the sex-filled shenanigans of Margaret Campbell, Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes on a Scandal tells the story of a villainous woman with a transgressive sexual appetite and a thorough lack of care for the moral order and the well-being of others.

Those in the mood to raise new questions about just what women can do are in luck. Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes on a Scandal premieres only a week after The Killer Nanny, the documentary looking at the tragic death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen — and Louise Woodward's role in it.

Unlike Margaret, a sex addict, and Louise, a 19-year-old au pair from Elton, Cheshire, who has long been considered the person to cause the traumatic injury that ended up costing the life of Matthew, Letourneau entered the public eye because she made sexual advances on an underage student and consequently married him.

Letourneau's life and deeds have served as the subject of numerous documentaries, including Mary Kay Letourneau: Autobiography, Mary Kay Letourneau: All American Girl, and Mary Kay Letourneau: Out of Bounds. Letourneau died of cancer in July 2020.

Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes on a Scandal arrives on Discovery Plus on Aug. 28, 2022.