Mary Kay Letourneau separates from the former student she was convicted of raping

Mary Kay Letourneau’s husband has filed for separation from his former elementary school teacher, who served a prison term for their affair that started when he was 12.

Vili Fualaau, now 33, filed for legal separation earlier this month, according to TMZ and other media outlets.

The Seattle couple jumped into the national spotlight in 1997 after Letourneau was jailed for raping Fualaau, who was her student at Burien’s Shorewood Elementary School. She was pregnant with Fualaau’s first child at the time. She gave birth to their second daughter while serving time.

But Fualaau told RadarOnline.com that the separation was for business reasons. “Everything is fine between us,” he said.

Letourneau pleaded guilty to two charges of child rape and served more than seven years in prison. When she was released in 2005, she and Fualaau petitioned a King County judge to lift an order barring them from seeing each other.

They married in Woodinville months later.

Letourneau, now 55, was a married mother of four when she began a sexual relationship with Fualaau. The two met when Fualaau was in the second grade.

This story was originally published May 30, 2017 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Mary Kay Letourneau separates from the former student she was convicted of raping."