Olivia Jade Recalls ‘Freezing’ After Learning of Lori Loughlin’s Arrest For the College Admissions Scandal

In her first interview since the college admissions scandal, Olivia Jade revealed how she learned of Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli’s arrest for their parts in the nationwide college admissions scandal.

Loughlin and Giannulli, Olivia Jade‘s parents, arrested in March 2019 after accusations that they paid $500,000 in bribes to the University of Southern California, so their daughters, Olivia Jade, 21, and Bella, 20, would be admitted into school as members of the crew team, even though neither daughter had experience in the sport. The two pled guilty to charges of fraud in May, and Loughlin, who was sentenced to two months in prison, started her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, on October 30. Giannulli, who was sentenced to five months in prison, started his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc, a month later in November 19. Both Loughlin and Giannulli were also fined $400,000.

In an interview on Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk on Tuesday, December 8, Olivia Jade revealed the moment that she learned that her parents had been arrested by the FBI. In her chat with Willow Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Jones, Olivia Jade explained that she was on spring break when she received a call from a friend who asked if she had talked to her mom. That was when Olivia Jade decided to Google Loughlin’s name, where she read about her parents’ arrest and their part in the nationwide college admissions scandal. “I was sitting with a group of friends and I knew any second, everybody was going to know too if they didn’t already,” she said. “I remember freezing and feeling so ashamed. I went home and hid myself for probably, like, three or four months.”

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While her semester at USC was still in session at the time, Olivia Jade Bella’s statuses at the school had been put on hold. Olivia Jade revealed in her Red Table Talk interview that she never planned to return after learning of her parents’ arrest. “I was too embarrassed. I shouldn’t have been there in the first place, clearly,” she said.

After she learned of the news, Olivia Jade also claimed that she “wasn’t angry” at her parents at first because she didn’t have the full story. 100 percent honesty, when it first happened, I didn’t look at it and say ‘Oh, my God, how dare we do this?’ I was like, ‘Why is everybody complaining. I’m confused what we did,'” she said. “That’s embarrassing to admit. That’s embarrassing in itself—that I walked around my whole 20 years of life not realizing, like, you have insane privilege. You’re, like, the poster child of white privilege and you had no idea. I think that although I’ve had a really strong relationship with my mom and dad my whole life, I was definitely confused when this call came out.”

When she did confront her parents about what she had learned, Olivia revealed that Loughlin and Giannulli apologized and took accountability for their mistakes. “I know they’re good people. I know that I’m not gonna judge them for a mistake they made,” Olivia said. “Although it’s a big one, they’re gonna pay the price for it…I know that they’ve struggled,” she said.

Red Table Talk is available to stream on Facebook Watch.