John Stamos Fiercely Defends TV Wife Lori Loughlin After College Admission Scandal

The effects of the scandal tainted Loughlin's long-standing acting career.

Years after the celebrity college admissions scandal has ended, John Stamos is publicly speaking on the situation, showing support for his former on-screen wife.

Stamos—who played Lori Loughlin's husband, Jesse Katsopolis, on Full House—addressed the touchy topic during his appearance on Monday's episode of Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast.

"You said some really nice stuff about her," Stamos told Shepard. "We talked last night about you. It was something that you were saying about how you hate when people bring her up because if you defend her, then people get mad. If you don't defend her, then you feel bad because she's a great person."

The 2019 fiasco, dubbed Operation Varsity Blues, found Loughlin and her real-life husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, among a group of 33 parents of college applicants who were accused of paying over $25 million in funds that ultimately went toward fake entrance exam scores/documents, as well as bribe payment to college officials in order to gain automatic university entrance.

Stamos wasn't shy about defending his former co-star, suggesting that the When Hope Calls actress was an innocent casualty of the whole ordeal. "She wasn't really the architect of any of it," he said of the scandal. "She was in the way background. She didn't know what was going on."

The actor also noted how Loughlin tried to make amends. "She also paid a lot of money. She set up a college fund for kids and she went to f---ing jail, man."

Loughlin and Giannulli were arrested in 2019 after the F.B.I. investigation was made public, and both eventually plead guilty in 2020. They were accused of paying $500k in bribes to make their daughters seem like recruits for the University of Southern California crew team, when in reality, neither daughter participated in the sport.

They, along with most of the other parents involved in the scam, were also sentenced to a few months of jail time with subsequent years of supervised release, hefty fines, and several hours of community service.

Loughlin has since returned to acting in series like When Calls the Heart and Garage Sale Mysteries.

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