How did Mary Kay Letourneau die? Cause of death explored ahead of ID documentary

The infamous Mary Kay Letourneau, a former high school teacher and alleged child abuser, died of cancer at the age of 58. Her scandalous affair with a teenage student, Vili Fualaau, made headlines in 1997 when she pleaded guilty to second-degree child r*pe on the accounts that her apparent lover was a minor when they began their s*xual relationship.

After all was said and done and Letourneau was released from prison in 2004 after serving time, the two reportedly married the following year and remained together until 2019. They had two daughters from their relationship, and Fualaau allegedly had to father them when he was just 15 years old while their mother served time in prison.

Their illicit affair made people question the system their young children so vehemently relied on for education, as well as the notoriety of a s*xually driven woman who would stop at nothing to claim the thing that her childhood friend Michelle Lobdell "claims was never a love story."

An ID documentary, Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes on a Scandal, will air on Sunday, August 28, 2022, narrating the story that captivated the nation in the late-90s. The documentary is scheduled to air at 9 pm ET. Let's explore the cause of Mary Kay Letourneau's death ahead of the premiere.

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What was the cause of Mary Kay Letourneau's death?

Mary Kay Letourneau's lawyer claimed that before she passed away at 58 on July 6, 2020, she was suffering from stage four colon cancer for quite some time, allegedly for years. Letourneau's death sparked increased interest in the case that resulted in a public outcry in the late 1990s.

According to sources, her former partner, who was at the center of the 1997 fiasco, was there with her during her last moments and was the one to pull the plug. Vili Fualaau opened up about his last moments with Mary Kay Letourneau and recalled his past with her in a The Dr. Oz Show episode, saying that he "couldn’t look at a 13-year-old and be attracted to that because it’s just not in my brain. It’s nothing that I’m attracted to."

Fualaau reportedly added,

"I didn't see her chest moving, and I thought it, maybe, it was like one of those pauses she has and then she'll come back. She'll take a deep breath, and she's gonna come back. I would count in between those pauses, and it was just the longest count that I had."

He further added,

"And I turned off her breathing machine just to hear if she was breathing just really soft, and at that moment, I had to, you know, tell the kids that they need to call the rest of the siblings to come and say their goodbyes. This is it."

The former lovers reportedly gave birth to two daughters, namely Audrey and Georgia. Letourneau gave birth to their first daughter when she was found guilty of second-degree child r*pe and the second daughter came soon afterwards while she was serving time in prison.

Their elder daughter Audrey reportedly commented on her parents' controversial relationship, saying,

"I think I understand about it, just like how it was surprising to people. It's been feeling different because it's not really been brought to our attention, just because we grew up with it, so we're adapted to it."

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The Mary Kay Letourneau case will be the subject of ID's upcoming documentary, Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes on a Scandal, that airs this Sunday, at 9 pm ET. Tune in to the channel to learn more about the decades-old case.