‘Desperate Housewives’ Star Felicity Huffman Reflects On Life After Varsity Blues Scam: “Your Old Life Died And You Died With It”

Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman will soon be performing in one of her first acting roles since she was convicted of fraud as part of the college admissions scandal.

Huffman, who paid $15,000 to falsify her daughter’s SAT scores to help her get into college, was one of 33 wealthy parents who were caught manipulating their children’s records so they could get into top-ranked colleges in 2019.

The actress spoke to The Guardian about how her life has been changed by the scandal (dubbed Varsity Blues by the FBI), which landed her in prison for 11 days in 2019. Huffman agreed that the scandal will be at the top of everyone’s mind when she takes the stage in London for Taylor Mac’s play, Hir.

“I walk into the room with it. I did it. It’s black and white,” she said. The actress added that she is “still processing” what happened, but said, “As long as my kids are well and my husband is well, I feel like I’m well.”

Huffman also revealed that she has barely worked since her conviction.

“I did a pilot for ABC recently that didn’t get picked up. It’s been hard,” she said. “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.”

Huffman served 11 days of her 14-day prison sentence, completed community service, and paid a $30,000 fine after she pleaded guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

The actress recently opened up about how the Varsity Blues scandal came to be, largely placing the blame on college counselor Rick Singer, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and fined $10 million after he and his clients were caught by authorities.

“I worked with him for a year. And trusted him implicitly. He recommended programs and tutors and he was the expert,” she recalled in an interview with ABC7 Eyewitness News.

“I believed him. And so when he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seems like — and I know this seems crazy at the time — but that was my only option to give my daughter a future,” Huffman said. “And 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.”

Full House star Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli were also convicted and sentenced to prison.

Tiger King producer Chris Smith created a documentary detailing how the FBI uncovered the scheme. Operation Varsity Blues is now streaming on Netflix.