Lori Loughlin privately paid $500K to put 2 students through college after admissions scandal
Lori Loughlin is moving on from the college admissions scandal — returning to work and making amends.
The Full House alum “privately arranged to put two students through four years of college,” according to an Us Weekly report, paying tuition and expenses totaling over $500,000.
Yahoo Entertainment can confirm Loughlin did front those education and living costs. However, there are no additional details — such as: who the beneficiaries are, how they were selected, what schools they attend and how the payments were distributed.
Loughlin, as well as her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty in May 2020 to conspiracy charges in connection with securing the fraudulent admission of their two daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Giannulli, to the University of Southern California as purported athletic recruits. The couple paid disgraced college admissions expert William "Rick" Singer $500,000 in bribes to secure admission — the same amount Loughlin is now fronting for the other students.
Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison for her role in the scandal, which she served last fall. She also paid a $150,000 fine, completed 100 hours of community service and is serving two years of supervised release.
According to the Us Weekly source, Loughlin hopes she's now “allowed to move on" as she resumes working in her first post-scandal project, a role in GAC Family's When Hope Calls. The source added that the actress feels like there is “this stigma attached to her by people who don’t want her to have any success.”
Loughlin previously played the character for six seasons on Hallmark Channel's When Calls the Heart, but the network severed ties with her amid the nationwide scandal. The spinoff is in its second season on GAC Family. It was announced last month that Loughlin would appear as a guest star in the two-part premiere, When Calls the Heart: A County Christmas, which debuts on Dec.18.
Loughlin has also been rooting on her younger daughter, YouTube personality Olivia Jade, as she competes for the mirrorball trophy on Season 30 of Dancing With the Stars.
“Literally right after we got off the stage, I called her," Olivia Jade told reporters earlier this month of her mom. "She’s the biggest support ever. She’s really proud of me and I love her so much. She’s, like, my hero. So it’s really nice to know she’s watching and she’s really proud... Mama bear! She’s excited.”
Earlier this week on the debut episode of her new podcast, Olivia Jade — who posed for a photo on a rowing machine to perpetuate the lie about her crew accomplishments, according to prosecutors — talked about moving past the scandal.
"For my certain situation [it's] hard for me to get to that point of like, 'It's OK, Olivia, you didn't know back then," as she's said previously that she wasn't aware her parents were breaking the law. "Then you obviously have so many people online being like, 'You should have known. You should have done better. This shouldn't have happened in the first place.' And then you have people telling you, like, 'Well, clearly you haven't learned anything still.'"
Olivia Jade, who left USC in 2019, said she feels "like I walk on eggshells when I talk just because I don't want to say the wrong thing — and I want to make it clear to people listening that I'm not trying to victimize myself."
She said she's become a different person from this, and credits therapy with helping her cope.