Eva Longoria recalls 'pure torture' of being 'bullied' on Desperate Housewives set

Sydney Bucksbaum

Eva Longoria is taking a walk down Wisteria — and memory — Lane. The actress is just one of 27 people who wrote letters of support for Felicity Huffman in the case for Huffman’s role in the college admissions scandal, in which she paid $15,000 to facilitate cheating on daughter Sofia’s SAT test by having a proctor correct the teen’s answers. In Longoria’s letter for her costar, obtained by NBC News, she reveals that she was bullied on the set of Desperate Housewives and Huffman stepped in to stop it.

“There was a time I was being bullied at work by a co-worker,” Longoria writes, not naming the costar. “I dreaded the days I had to work with that person because it was pure torture. Until one day, Felicity told the bully ‘enough’ and it all stopped. Felicity could feel that I was riddled with anxiety even though I never complained or mentioned the abuse to anyone.”

Longoria goes on to detail how three of the four lead women on the series, Huffman, Teri Hatcher, and Marcia Cross, were each nominated for a Golden Globe Award while she was not, and says it was Huffman who consoled her. “I was the only one who was left out of the nominations,” Longoria writes. “I wasn’t devastated but the press made it a bigger deal than it was between the four of us actors and that did affect me a bit. Felicity came to my trailer and said, ‘It’s just a piece of metal, that and $1.50 will get you a bus ticket.’ She then proceeded to tell me how talented I was and how I never needed an award to know that,” she recalls. “I know I would not have survived those 10 years if it wasn’t for the friendship of Felicity.”

And because Longoria knows that these sound like “first-class problems or small insignificant moments,” she goes on to explain that “to a young, naive, Mexican girl who felt like I didn’t belong, those gestures meant the world to me.”

Longoria also reveals in the letter that Huffman helped champion pay parity on set for all the leads on Desperate Housewives, even when the other actors fought against it. “This fight lasted weeks, but Felicity held strong and convinced everyone this was the right thing to do,” Longoria adds. “And thanks to her, I was bumped up.”

Reps for Longoria had no comment. Read her full letter of support for Huffman here.

In the ongoing college admissions scandal case, Huffman may face up to one month in prison if a judge follows the recommendation of federal prosecutors. But, through her attorneys, Huffman asked the judge for one year of probation and community service with the 27 letters of support to prove her character. In addition to Longoria, Huffman’s husband William H. Macy also submitted a letter. The actress will be sentenced on Sept. 13.

“I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions,” Huffman said in April upon agreeing to plead guilty.

Related content: