On TV, John Stamos and Lori Loughlin were Jesse Katsopolis and Rebecca Donaldson, husband and wife and parents of twins. In their private lives, Stamos found himself reaching out to Loughlin just as news started to break that she was in the thick of an intricate college scandal.
The 2019 college admissions scandal, now known formally as the Varsity Blues scandal, was a conspiracy to tamper with admissions decisions at several top American universities. It involved participants from every level, from coaches to parents – including Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli. When news of the scandal broke, Stamos and Loughlin exchanged a whirlwind conversation, which he has revealed in his new memoir, If You Would Have Told Me.
John Stamos shares his text conversation with Lori Loughlin regarding the Varsity Blues scandal
If You Would Have Told Me hit shelves on October 24, revealing all sorts of defining moments from Stamos’s career and personal life. At one point, Stamos highlighted his conversation with Loughlin as information gradually trickled – and then flooded – onto the news.
“In March 2019, I get a strange text around 5:30 am from my good friend Roger Lodge,” shared Stamos. “He asks if Lori is okay. I hit him back, ‘Why, what’s up?’ Something about a college scandal. I started Googling, but there was very little I could find. I knew she was working in Canada, so I called to check on her.”
He asked her about what bits of news he’d heard, only for Loughlin to sound indifferent, with Stamos recalling, “‘Oh that, yeah, I’m not sure,’ she answers so casually as if I just asked her if Nicky and Alex finished all their vegetables,” in reference to their TV kids on Full House. According to Stamos’s memoir, she then added, “I have seen some emails lately from lawyers to Moss, but I stay out of it.” It took the actor a moment to process what she said. Then, news hit properly – and it hit fast and personally.
Some things are destined to change while some stay the same
The floodgates opened. “I notice an odd clicking sound on the phone line,” Stamos noted. “When I asked her about it, she again adopts her laissez-faire tone, ‘Oh, they may be bugging my phone.'” By the time their call ended, the scandal was headline news.
“I immediately text Lori, ‘Are you watching the news?'” he continued. “An FBI agent is announcing the largest college admissions scandal ever handled by the Department of Justice, involving bribes to prestigious colleges for falsified student acceptances. She asks, ‘What channel?’ I text back in all caps: ‘EVERY CHANNEL!'”
Throughout the whirlwind scandal, Stamos asserted, “Lori Loughlin continues to be a cherished friend to this day. We’ve weathered storms together and stood by each other’s sides, despite life’s hurdles. We’ve seen each other at our worst.”
