Olivia Jade Giannulli had some healing that needed to happen. Over a year after her parents, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, were incriminated in a high-profile college-admissions bribery scandal, the beauty influencer and vlogger appeared on Red Table Talk to share her perspective and ultimately begin her anticipated apology tour.
“There is no justifying or excusing what happened. What happened was wrong,” Olivia told Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield Norris. As a refresher, Lori and Mossimo were accused of paying for Olivia and their other daughter, Isabella Rose Giannulli, to be admitted into the University of Southern California as crew team recruits, despite the fact that neither of them participated in the sport. In August, Lori was sentenced to two months in federal prison and Mossimo was sentenced to five months. They both began their sentences in November.
It’s worth noting the decision to have Olivia on Red Table Talk was not exactly welcomed by everyone. “I fought it tooth and nail. I just found it really ironic that she chose three Black women to reach out to for her redemption story,” Adrienne said at the start of the episode. “It’s not our responsibility to raise her consciousness.” Jada, however, described the conversation as a “practice of compassion.”
The interview was also a major moment for the Facebook Watch show, receiving over 400,000 views in two hours. Read the most revelatory quotes ahead.