Felicity Huffman breaks silence on 'Varsity Blues' college admission scandal, arrest

Felicity Huffman is breaking her silence about her role in the "Varsity Blues" national college admissions scandal.

The Oscar-nominated actress, 60, opened up publicly for the first time about the scandal, which involved dozens of wealthy parents working with college admission consultant Rick Singer to help their kids gain admission to college fraudulently, in an interview with KABC ABC7 in Los Angeles.

Huffman pleaded guilty in 2019 for her part in the scandal, after paying $15,000 for someone to falsify her daughter Sophia Grace Macy's SAT exam. Huffman pleaded guilty was sentenced to two weeks in federal prison in California and required to pay a $30,000 fine, serve one year of supervision upon her release and perform 250 hours of community service. Huffman completed 11 days of the two-week sentence in October 2019.

Now, the "Desperate Housewives" star says she felt she had no choice but to "break the law" at the time.

"It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future," Huffman said. "And so it was sort of like my daughter's future, which meant I had to break the law."

Huffman said she had second thoughts and anxiety the morning of her daughter’s exam.

"She was going, 'Can we get ice cream afterwards?'" Huffman said. "I'm scared about the test. What can we do that's fun? And I kept thinking, 'Turn around, just turn around.' And to my undying shame, I didn't."

'I thought it was a hoax': Felicity Huffman on scandal fallout

Huffman's daughter's SAT score improved to a 1420 as a result of the cheating, up 400 points from when she took the PSAT by herself the previous year.

Over 50 people, including over 30 parents, have been sentenced in the admissions scandal, including "Full House" actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli.

Loughlin and Giannulli were convicted after paying $500,000 to Singer's sham nonprofit for their two daughters to be classified as crew recruits at the University of Southern California. Loughlin was sentenced to two months and Giannulli received five months; Loughlin was released from prison in December 2020 after serving her two-month sentence.

In January, Singer was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and ordered to forfeit $10 million, per the Associated Press.

Elite colleges are accused of price-fixing. Experts say they have a different wealth problem.

Huffman told the news station that she didn't set out to break the law when she first reached out to Singer, whose services were highly recommended.

He eventually did reveal his scheme, however. "After a year, he started to say, 'Your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to,'" Huffman said. "And I believed him."

She continued, "I know hindsight is 20/20, but it felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn't do it. So I did it."

When the FBI showed up at Huffman's door months later, she couldn't believe it.

"They came into my home. They woke my daughters up at gunpoint," she said. "Again, nothing new to the Black and brown community. Then they put my hands behind my back and handcuffed me and I asked if I could get dressed."

She was stunned, she said. "I thought it was a hoax. I literally turned to one of the FBI people, in a flak jacket and a gun, and I went, 'Is this a joke?'"

Huffman's husband, actor William H. Macy, 73, did not face any charges in connection with the scandal. The couple share another daughter, Georgia Grace Macy, 21.

During the scandal, Sophia Grace Macy, 23, was rejected by every college she applied to. She then retook the SAT and earned her way into Carnegie Mellon University, where she is in the drama program.

Read Felicity Huffman's full, emotional statement about her 14-day prison sentence

Felicity Huffman apologizes for part in college admissions scandal

Four years after completing her jail sentence, the "Transamerica" actress is apologizing for her part in the college admissions scandal.

"I think the people I owe a debt and apology to is the academic community," she told ABC7. "And to the students and the families that sacrifice and work really hard to get to where they are going legitimately."

Today, she is involved with the nonprofit A New Way of Life, where she spent her court-ordered community service.

"I want to use my experience and what I've gone through and the pain to bring something good, which is to shine a light on Susan Burton's organization," she said of the nonprofit, which helps previously incarcerated women by providing housing, job training and safety.

When Huffman's 250 hours of community service at the organization were completed, she stayed on and later joined its board of directors.

"When I saw what A New Way of Life was doing, which is they heal one woman at a time and if you heal one woman, you heal her children, you heal her grandchildren and you heal the community," she said.

Contributing: Joey Garrison

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Felicity Huffman breaks silence on daughter, college admission scandal