Full House actress Lori Loughlin is reportedly second-guessing a decision to turn down a plea deal in the college admissions scandal despite her belief that this is all a “huge misunderstanding.”
Loughlin has supposedly been spooked by the number of parents pleading guilty in “Operation Varsity Blues,” the name of the operation exposing nationwide college admissions corruption. As the weeks have passed and more and more parents have decided to enter guilty pleas, Loughlin has been having second thoughts about turning down a plea deal put on the table by prosecutors, an unnamed source told ET.
“While a few friends have stuck by her side, many others have cut her off,” the source said. “She still feels it’s a huge misunderstanding, but seeing others be sentenced has scared her.”
“She is watching the reduced sentences of those who have taken plea deals, and wondering each day if she’s made the wrong decision,” the source continued.
Remarkably, the unnamed individual claimed that Loughlin might actually be resigned to the reality of time behind bars, suggesting that the reason Loughlin has continued to live her best life of late is that she might not have the same freedom she’s grown accustomed to for long.
“She is trying to live a normal everyday life and to take this time to stay strong but it isn’t easy. Lori doesn’t have the support she once had. She is feeling a ‘fall from grace’ having had a persona as a wholesome mom and now being seen as a pariah,” the source added. “People keep giving Lori a hard time for being out and about and looking carefree, but she realizes that she might end up in prison and this might just be her last months of freedom for some time.”
It doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise that Loughlin would feel unsettled as she watches defendants accused of similar crimes getting relatively light punishments as she and her husband Mossimo Giannulli take their chances in court. One defendant even got no jail time, though the circumstances of the offense were quite different.
Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of creating fake rowing profiles to get their daughters Isabella Giannulli and Olivia Jade Giannulli into USC, “agree[ing] to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the [University of Southern California (USC)] crew team–despite the fact that they did not participate in crew.”
They were initially charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. After turning down a deal, seemingly “adamant” about not doing “any jail time,” the couple was hit with additional money laundering charges. For now, things remain very much up in the air. Only time will tell whether Loughlin and Giannulli made the right call.
[Image via Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images]
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