Mary Kay Letourneau's Ex-Husband Vili Fualaau Says He's 'Offended' by May-December

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about the Golden Globe-nominated film -- which revolves around a couple whose relationship is incredibly similar to the one Fualaau had with Mary Kay Letourneau and the scandal that gripped the nation in the '90s -- Fualaau claims he was never consulted about the film.

"I'm still alive and well," Fualaau, now 40 and still living in the Seattle area, where the scandal unfolded, told the outlet. "If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story."

While the film isn't an exact adaptation of their real-life relationship and the case that unfolded, there are plenty of similarities.

The film is told through the lens of Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), who plays an actress obsessively researching the now-married Joe Yoo (Melton) and Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), and their scandalous union. Yoo (Melton) was 13 when he is first seduced by Moore's 36-year-old character, while Fualaau was just 12 when he was victimized by a 34-year-old Letourneau in 1996.

What's more, is both men are from the AAPI community -- Joe is half-Korean, while Fualaau is Samoan. Both fathered children born in prison and both went on to marry their female abusers after the women served time for their crimes; Letourneau pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape and spent six months in jail.

At one point, the film even uses dialogue taken directly from a televised interview with Letourneau and Fualaau.

"I'm offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me -- who lived through a real story and is still living it," he added.

Fualaau's real-life relationship with Letourneau had complexities not captured in the film, with the pair welcoming two daughters over the course of their marriage before ultimately separating in 2017.

While they made the decision to end their relationship, Fualaau was still at Letourneau's bedside when she died from cancer in 2020. Two years later, he would go on to welcome a third child from a new relationship, and in September, learned that he and Letourneau's daughter, Georgia, is expecting a child of her own, making him a soon-to-be grandfather.

While Fualaau told THR he's not opposed to the idea of someone making a movie about his life, May December is not the story he was expecting to see.

"I love movies -- good movies," Fualaau said. "And I admire ones that capture the essence and complications of real-life events. You know, movies that allow you to see or realize something new every time you watch them."

He continued, "Those kinds of writers and directors -- someone who can do that -- would be perfect to work with, because my story is not nearly as simple as this movie [portrays]."

May December filmmakers have tried to make clear that the movie is not a re-telling of the Mary Kay Letourneau case, with screenwriter Samy Burch calling it only a "jumping-off point."

The case did ultimately inform the film, however, with director Todd Haynes telling THR during the film's premiere in November, that they turned to Letourneau's story when making the award-nominated project.

"There were times when it became very, very helpful to get very specific about the research, and we learned things from that relationship," Haynes said at the time.

TooFab has reached out to reps for Haynes, Melton and Netflix for comment.