Felicity Huffman reflected on what she's lost after the college admissions scandal.
In a candid interview, the Desperate Housewives alum, 61, opened up about her life now — years after she completed an 11-day stint in prison, paid hefty fines and participated in community service for forking over cash to help her daughter get into a good school.
"I did a pilot for ABC recently that didn't get picked up," Huffman admitted about what's happened to her career. "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."
When the Georgia Rule actress, who shares daughters Sophia, 23, and Georgia, 21, with husband William H. Macy, was asked how she's coped with the change, she admitted it was a "loaded" question.
"As long as my kids are well and my husband is well, I feel like I'm well," she emphasized. "I'm grateful to be here. But how am I? I guess I'm still processing."
In 2019, Huffman was charged with mail fraud and honest services mail fraud for reportedly paying $15,000 to falsify her eldest daughter's SAT score.
"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," the mother-of-two explained in a 2023 interview.
"I worked with a highly recommended college counselor named Rick Singer," Huffman revealed of who guided her in the scheme. "I worked with him for a year and trusted him implicitly; he recommended programs and tutors and he was the expert."
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"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. And so it was sort of like my daughter's future, which meant I had to break the law," the Golden Globe Award winner admitted of the move.
The Guardian conducted the interview with Huffman.
