Mary Kay Letourneau Ex Vili Fualaau and Daughters ‘Don’t Love’ That Netflix Will Release Julianne Moore Film Based on Their Lives

Netflix is releasing a new movie loosely based on the lives of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, whose family will be thrust into the spotlight yet again.

"They don't love it, but they understand the interest," a friend of Mary Kay Letourneau, who died in 2020, tells The Messenger. "They've always had to deal with this. They had to deal with full-on TV movies about their family, when they were all very young. So that was much worse than this."

In May December, Julianne Moore plays Gracie, a woman who became tabloid fodder when she fell in love with a young boy. After Gracie serves prison time, she then marries the boy upon her release. The couple has children together.

Natalie Portman plays a television actress who is hired to portray Gracie in a made-for-TV biopic. The two women meet, and make observations about each other's lives.

The film, which was set to open the New York Film Festival despite intense flooding in New York City on Friday, will be released in theaters in Nov. 17 and stream on Netflix Dec. 1.

Its storyline is very familiar to the Fualaau family.

Letourneau was a married sixth-grade teacher in 1996 when she began sexually abusing Fualaau, who was then her 12-year-old student.

She twice became pregnant by Fualaau before he was 15. Their daughter Audrey came first, followed by another girl, Georgia.

Letourneau spent seven years in prison for child rape.

By the time she was released, Fualaau was an adult. He petitioned the court to allow them to see each other. They married in 2005.

Letourneau's marriage with Fualaau lasted until 2017, when he filed for formal separation.

She died of stage 4 cancer three years later.

After growing up under such scrutiny, the Fualaau family will likely not watch the movie, according to Letourneau's friend. But they also don't hide their history.

"This story is part of their family lore and it hasn't gone away, even after Mary's death," says the friend. "It's going to be something Georgia and Audrey are going to have to tell their children."