Mary Kay Letourneau, in a much-publicized sit-down with ABC News' Barbara Walters last night, said she does not consider herself to be a sex offender.
The 53-year-old former teacher, who spent over seven years in prison for her affair with then-13-year-old student Vili Fualaau in 1996, is still with Fualaau.
The pair have two teenage daughters and are about to celebrate their 10-year wedding anniversary together - a milestone few would have expected.
"There is a story of us that has a life of its own, but it's not our story," Mary Kay Letourneau, who was a married mother of four before the tryst, said.
Today, the grandmother and mother of six remains a registered sex offender.
"Recently I said, 'It's been 10 years, why don't I lift that?'" she told Walters.
Letourneau said she'd like to teach again, but this makes it tough; she was also banned from visiting her sick teenage daughter in the hospital due of it.
Her children with Fualaau - Audrey, 17, and Georgia, 16 - were born when Fualaau was barely in his teens, also pose challenges for the spouses.
"When the girls get in trouble, I wouldn't handle it they way she would," Fualaau, 31, says, although he proudly notes that Mary Kay is "a very good mom."
"It will be a two-hour talk. I'll be there thinking, 'When will this be over!' A lot of the time I'll give her a hard time about it but actually [it] works in the end."
One thing he's learned from his own experience is that the couple's teenage daughters should not date too young, said Fualaau, who won't permit them to do so:
"When you're that young a relationship can lead to something you think you want, but not years later. Don't put your all into something when it's just temporary."
Walters asked Fualaau, who works at a garden center and as a DJ called DJ Headline, how he'd feel if the girls were having an affair with their teacher.
A fair but complicated question, to which he responded, "I don't support younger kids being married or having relationships with someone older. I don't support it."
Fualaau cheated on Letourneau when she was in prison, she says, but the father of two says there was no doubt that he wanted to marry her one day.
His teenage years were a dark time, he admits, but from them came light:
"I feel sad for a lot of parts of my life. When I start thinking about those things, I think about the beauty that's come from it, where can I take that and run with it."
"[It's a] happy feeling for sure. I feel very safe."
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