YouTuber Olivia Jade Giannulli, daughter of Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli and the most famous college student to become embroiled in the 2019 college admissions scandal, sat down for a 30-minute interview with Red Table Talk, which aired Tuesday morning on Facebook.
The talk show is hosted by three generations of prominent Black women: Jada Pinkett Smith, daughter Willow Smith, and Pinkett Smithâs mother (Willowâs grandmother), Adrienne Banfield Norris (aka Gammy). During an intro segment, Banfield Norris said she was vehemently opposed to having Olivia Jade on the show.
âShe chose three Black women to reach out to for her redemption story. I feel like, here we are, a white woman coming to Black women for support when we donât get the same from them,â Banfield Norris said. âHer being here is the epitome of white privilege.â
In defense of the decision to host Olivia Jade, Pinkett Smith says, âI never want to be the thing that was done to me by white women.â
Upon joining the conversation, a contrite and nervous Olivia Jade said sheâs learned about her own privilege and has grown as an individual. âI feel like I deserve a second chance to redeem myself, to show Iâve grown,â the 21-year-old said. She also somewhat awkwardly said her motherâs prison term could be a positive, a chance for reflection: âHopefully it will be a blessing in the end.â
In March 2019, Olivia Jade was a 19-year-old freshman enjoying spring break on a friendâs yacht when she discoveredâalong with the rest of the worldâthat her parents were being charged with fraud for bribing her way (and her sisterâs way) into USC. Both mom Loughlin and dad Giannulli eventually pleaded guilty to the respective charges against them, and both are currently serving out sentences in federal prisons in California.
Olivia Jade admitted to her interviewers that when news of the scandal first broke, she didnât understand why people were so upset. Paying to get kids into college was commonplace in her circle of family and friends. But the more she learned, the more she saw injustices. She even volunteered with kids at an after-school program in downtown L.A.
âOn paper itâs bad, itâs really bad,â Olivia Jade said. âBut what I think a lot of people donât know is my parents came from a place of just, âI love my kids, I just want to help my kids, whateverâs best for them.ââ
Neither Loughlin nor Giannulli went to college, and Olivia Jade suspects thatâs why they were so insistent on she and her sister attending. Alas, after the scandal broke, Olivia Jade never returned to USC. âI shouldnât have been there in the first place clearly, so there was no point in me trying to go back,â she said.
The episode doesnât exactly address how much Olivia Jade knew while she was applying for college, but she says that she trusted the âcollege counselorâ (Rick Singer, the now-infamous mastermind behind the admissions scandal), and worked her âass offâ in high school, writing college admissions essays about her YouTube channel and Vidcon. She says her oblivion never caused her to be angry at her parents.
âI know theyâre good people and I know that Iâm not going to judge them for a mistake they made and although itâs a big one, theyâre going to pay the price for it,â she said.
RELATED: A Source Says Olivia Jade Is Leaving USC to Return to Influencing
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