Felicity Huffman speaks out about the Paris Match bribery scandal

Felicity Huffman speaks out about the Paris Match bribery scandal four years after her release from prison

Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to two weeks in prison for attempting to manipulate her eldest daughter’s school results in 2019.

In March 2019, Felicity Huffman was charged with paying bribes to intermediaries to get her daughter a place at a prestigious university. On Thursday, November 30, the actress spoke on the subject for the first time on American television.

“I felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future,” Felicity Huffman told ABC-7 Eyewitness News. “So it was kind of about my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law,” she said.

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Felicity Huffman paid a broker $15,000 to have her daughter Sophia’s college entrance exam results falsified without telling her. The scandal involved dozens of parents, including actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, who paid $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California.

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“People think I was trying to cheat the system and run criminal deals in back alleys, but that’s not the case,” the “Desperate Housewives” actress continued. She then explains that she “worked” with Rick Singer, a “highly recommended university advisor.” “I trusted him unconditionally. He recommended programs and tutors to me and was the expert. »

His “only option”

But his speech soon changes and he assures the 60-year-old actress that, given her results, his daughter cannot be admitted to the universities she wants. “So I believed him,” she assures. “When he began to present his criminal plan, it seemed to me – and I know it seemed crazy to me at the time – that this was my only option to give my daughter a future. “And added, ‘I felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it.’ So I did it,” she explains.

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After the affair was discovered, the actress was sentenced to two weeks in prison, a $30,000 fine and 250 hours of community service. After his daughter was allowed to retake the exams, she was finally admitted to a prestigious university in Pennsylvania.

Today, Felicity Huffman works with the nonprofit A New Way of Life, whose mission is to help formerly incarcerated women reintegrate. “I want to use my experience, what I’ve been through and the pain to bring out something good,” she explained in the same interview.