Personal Life
While attending Arizona State University, Letourneau, then Schmitz, met and married fellow student Steve Letourneau. They had four children, the first, Steven Jr., conceived while she was enrolled at Arizona State University. Letourneau says she was not in love with Steve Letourneau and married him after being urged by her parents. Letourneau and her husband left the university and moved to Anchorage, Alaska. After a year in Alaska, her husband was transferred to Seattle and Letourneau gave birth to her second child (Mary Claire). Letourneau attended night classes at Seattle University and graduated in 1989. Later she began teaching second grade at Shorewood Elementary School in the Seattle suburb of Burien, Washington.
Letourneau's marriage reportedly suffered from financial problems and extramarital affairs by both partners. Letourneau's attorney, former neighbor and friend, David Gehrke, says that she was "emotionally and physically abused by her husband" during the marriage and twice "went to the hospital for treatment, and police were called," even though criminal charges were never filed. Despite these marital issues, Letourneau gave birth to two more children, her son Nicholas and daughter Jacqueline. In May 1999, while incarcerated, Mary Kay divorced Steve Letourneau and surrendered custody of her four children.
Letourneau's brother John Patrick Schmitz is the former deputy counsel to President George H. W. Bush.
Read more about this topic: Mary Kay Letourneau
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