Felicity Huffman Breaks Silence on College Admissions Scandal: Her Biggest Bombshells

​On Her Motive

Huffman explained her thought process before consulting with Singer.

“It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future,” she told Eyewitness News in November 2023. “And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law.”

On the Hours Before the SAT

Huffman maintained that Sophia, whom she shares with husband William H. Macy, had no idea that her test results would be falsified. The pair are also parents to daughter Georgia Macy.

“She was going, ‘Can we get ice cream afterwards?'” the Emmy winner recalled of driving her eldest child to her SAT. “‘I’m scared about the test. What can we do that’s fun?’ And I kept thinking, turn around, just turn around. And to my undying shame, I didn’t.”

On Her Conversations With Singer

Huffman described the nature of the conversations she had with Singer, now known as “Operation Varsity Blues” mastermind.

“After a year, he started to say your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to,” she reflected. “And 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.”

After federal prosecutors nailed Singer as the face of the $25 million college admissions scheme and the middleman in more than a dozen instances of bribery and fraud, he pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstruction of justice in March 2019. He was sentenced in federal court to three and a half years in prison and ordered to pay more than $19 million in restitution and forfeiture.

On Her Regrets

Huffman publicly apologized to those she hurt with her actions during the low point in her life.

“I think the people I owe a debt and apology to is the academic community,” the Magnolia actress said. “And to the students and the families that sacrifice and work really hard to get to where they are going legitimately.”