Felicity Huffman reveals her ‘old life died’ following college admissions scandal

‘As long as my kids are well and my husband is well, I feel like I’m well,’ Huffman says

Felicity Huffman is reflecting on how her life has changed since the college admissions scandal.

Back in 2019, the Desperate Housewives star was one of the many wealthy parents that teamed up with college counsellor and forefront of the “Operation Varsity Blues” scandal William “Rick” Singer to use illegal tactics to get their children into elite colleges, including the University of Southern California and colleges in the Ivy League system.

After pleading guilty, Huffman served 11 days in prison, paid a $300,000 fine, and completed 250 hours of community service.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Huffman opened up on what her life looks like now. “I did a pilot for ABC recently that didn’t get picked up,” she told the outlet, explaining that she was trying to find acting work.

“It’s been hard. Sort of like your old life died and you died with it. I’m lucky enough to have a family and love and means, so I had a place to land.”

She added that even asking a typically simple question about how she’s doing is a “loaded question”.

“As long as my kids are well and my husband is well, I feel like I’m well,” Huffman said of her two daughters, 23-year-old Sophia and 21-year-old Georgia, who she shares with William H Macy.

“I’m grateful to be here. But how am I? I guess I’m still processing,” she added.

This isn’t the first time the actress has spoken out about her involvement in the scandal. Back in November 2023, she spoke with ABC-7.

During the interview, Huffman spoke candidly about what drove her to take such drastic measures to get her oldest daughter admitted to an elite university. “People assume that I went into this looking for a way to cheat the system and making proverbial criminal deals in back alleys, but that was not the case,” she said.

“I worked with a highly recommended college counsellor named Rick Singer. I worked with him for a year and trusted him implicitly; he recommended programs and tutors and he was the expert. And after a year, he started to say: ‘Your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to.’ And so, I believed him.”

She continued: “When he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seemed like - and I know this seems crazy at the time - that that was my only option to give my daughter a future. 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.”

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

Huffman talked about having second thoughts regarding Singer’s plans while driving her daughter Sophia to take the SAT.  “She was going: ‘Can we get ice cream afterwards? I’m scared about the test. What can we do that’s fun?’ And I kept thinking: ‘Turn around, just turn around,’” Huffman told the outlet. “To my undying shame, I didn’t.”