William H. Macy is celebrating his wife Felicity Huffman’s latest television gig, five years after the college admissions scandal rocked her career.
Macy, 74, told Entertainment Tonight in a Thursday, May 2, interview that it’s “great” Huffman, 61, is joining the cast of Criminal Minds: Evolution. “I went to visit her on the set a couple of times … and she had a great time,” he explained. “I think she did a great job too. I’m really glad she’s working.”
He added that the pair support each other as performers, noting, “We give each other each other’s scripts and we give each other notes. We somehow make it work.”
Huffman’s Criminal Minds: Evolution casting was announced in early April, arriving one year after the actress made her TV comeback on The Good Doctor’s spinoff, The Good Lawyer. The short-lived show marked Huffman’s return to acting after taking a four-year break following her involvement in the college admissions scandal.
The former Desperate Housewives star was arrested in March 2019 for paying $15,000 to improve her daughter Sophia’s SAT scores. She was one of 50 people who were arrested as part of the scandal, which also included Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli.
Huffman, who shares daughters Sophia, now 23, and Georgia, now 22, with Macy, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in May 2019. She was sentenced to 14 days in prison that September and released in October 2019 after serving 11 days.
The actress broke her silence on the scandal in a November 2023 interview with ABC-7 Eyewitness News, noting that she felt “undying shame” for her actions.
“I felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future. And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law,” she told ABC. “I know hindsight is 20/20 but I felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it. So I did it.”
Looking back on the moment she was arrested at gunpoint, Huffman recalled thinking it was a “hoax” and turned to one of FBI agents to ask, “Is this a joke?” She pled guilty to fraud charges one month later.
Sophia, for her part, retook her SATs and was accepted into Carnegie Mellon University in April 2020.
“I think the people I owe a debt and apology to is the academic community,” Huffman said. “And to the students and the families that sacrifice and work really hard to get to where they are going legitimately.”
