Felicity Huffman, who has been indicted in a college cheating scandal, is married to the well-known actor William H. Macy. Huffman and Macy have two children, Sophia and Georgia Macy.
Huffman’s husband and daughters were not charged in the case. Felicity Huffman, though, was accused of “conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud” in the indictment, which also charges actress Lori Loughlin and multiple other people. You can read the U.S. Department of Justice press release here.
Huffman’s husband is mentioned in court documents. In addition to starring on the Showtime series Shameless, Macy is known for his acting roles in movies like Fargo and Boogie Nights.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. William H. Macy & Felicity Huffman Dated for 15 Years Before Marrying
It took a long time for Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy to decide to marry, but theirs is a long-term marriage, and they dated for an extensive period of time before matrimony.
According to the Today Show, William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman “dated for 15 years before they finally tied the knot in 1997. Sofia was born in 2000, Georgia in 2002.” Although many interviews refer to the eldest daughter as Sofia, William H. Macy refers to her as Sophia on Twitter.
Felicity told TribLive that marriage once terrified her. “I was so scared of marriage that I thought I would’ve preferred to step in front of a bus,” she told the newspaper, adding: “Bill Macy asked me to marry him several times over several years. And I was finally smart enough to go: ‘I’m going to marry this guy or really lose him for good.’ And it was after we broke up for four or five years when he asked me again, I knew I couldn’t say no. It was the work I had to do in order to bring myself to the marriage and then the work that I did to be able to trust another person and see what comes out of that comfort and that safety. I was able to blossom out of that.”
In April 2018, Felicity Huffman posted a photo of her husband dancing with one of their daughters. “The girl tried on her prom dress. The dad took her for a spin. ❤️” she wrote.
2. William Macy Once Commented He Hoped the Couple’s Daughters Had a Lot of Sex
William H. Macy has been very candid about the kind of lives he wants his daughters with Felicity Huffman to live.
In 2018, William H. Macy discussed the couple’s daughters to US Magazine, and said what the magazine called a “shotgun trope” needed to end.
He also said he hoped they had a lot of sex in their lifetimes. At that time, in May 2018, Sophia Macy was 17 and Georgia Macy was 16.
“You know, I started doing all the cliches, ‘I’m gonna threaten the guys, I’m gonna dig a moat around our house,’” Macy, 68, told Us Weekly. “And then I thought, ‘OK, what do you really want for your daughters?’ And I realized: I want them to be happy and lusty and safe. I want them to have a lot of sex in their lifetime! Good, healthy wonderful sex with no guilt. That’s what I really want.”
He told the magazine his daughters had a lot of friends over all the time and added, “It’s pretty bizarre, especially with Sofia, to wake up in the morning and there’s some boy walking out of your daughter’s room! They all sleep together! I don’t think they have sex, well, I know they don’t.”
3. William H. Macy Described Being in the Midst of College Applications
William H. Macy has said that being an older father meant he had more patience: “I had more patience, and I had money. I didn’t think I’d ever be a father, and boy, do I really like it!” he told Today.
To Parade Magazine, he said in January of Sophia: “She’s going to go to college. I’m the outlier in this thing. We’re right now in the thick of college application time, which is so stressful. I am voting that once she gets accepted, she maybe takes a year off. God doesn’t let you be 18 twice.”
He concluded by saying that Georgia was interested in politics, whereas Sophia was interested in acting, telling Parade: “I know from casting, if you need a 25-, 26-year-old actress, there are a lot of them out there and they’re really good. But if you need a 15-, 16-year-old actress, it’s tough. Sofia looks young. I think this is an opportunity for her. But it’s just my opinion, and we’ll see what she wants to do, what Felicity thinks and how the chips fall. My daughter Georgia, she’s interested in politics, political science and pursuing that. She’s in a very academic school and killing it.”
4. The Pair Were Older Parents & Met at a Theater Company
How did Felicity Huffman meet William H. Macy? They “met in the early 1980s at New York City’s Atlantic Theater Company. For her, it was love at first sight,” Woman’s Day reported.
She pursued him, and their bond derived from acting. “It’s the only language that we have,” she told the publication.
William was already 50-years-old when the couple’s first child was born. He was 68-years-old in January 2019. Felicity Huffman was 56-years-old. However, he has argued that he’s glad they waited to have kids.
“I’m glad I did it late in life,” the Shameless star told Closer.
“My daughters are extraordinary women,” William H. Macy told Parade Magazine in January 2019. “They’re really a joy. They’re both thriving. They’ve got a life ahead of them, but you can exhale a little bit. They’re 16 and 18 years old, and they’re good people. My daughter Sofia, the oldest, is going to LAHSA [Los Angeles High School of the Arts]. She’s thriving there. I know she’s going to make a go of it in the business, which I support. I’ve seen her; she’s good, she’s really good.”
The eldest daughter has a few acting credits to her name.
5. Court Documents Allege Felicity Huffman Participated in a College Cheating Scheme to Help Sophia Macy
The lengthy court documents paint a picture of an elaborate alleged scheme in which parents knowingly allowed people to take college entrance exams for their kids.
The affidavit in support of the criminal complaint alleges that “beginning in or about 2011, and continuing through the present, the defendants—principally individuals whose high-school aged children were applying to college—conspired with others to use bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children’s admission to colleges and universities in the District of Massachusetts and elsewhere, including Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, and the University of California–Los Angeles, among others.”
Huffman, Loughlin, and others are included in the lengthy indictment, which you can read here and below.
The court documents say that “Defendant FELICITY HUFFMAN is a resident of Los Angeles, California. HUFFMAN, who has two daughters, is an actress…HUFFMAN and her spouse made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000 …to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her oldest daughter.”
The accusations against Huffman involve an alleged college entrance exam scheme.
The documents further allege that Huffman “later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so.” A person identified only as CW-1 “has advised law enforcement agents that, prior to the December 2017 SAT, CW-1 met with HUFFMAN and her spouse in their Los Angeles home and explained, in substance, how the college entrance exam scheme worked.”
The documents continue: “According to CW-1, he advised HUFFMAN and her spouse that he ‘controlled’ a testing center, and could arrange for a third party to purport to proctor their daughter’s SAT and secretly correct her answers afterwards. CW-1 has advised investigators that HUFFMAN and her spouse agreed to the plan. In or about the summer of 2017, HUFFMAN and CW-1 exchanged multiple e-mails about how to obtain 100 percent extra time on the SAT for her daughters. On or about October 16, 2017, HUFFMAN’s older daughter received a letter from the College Board advising that she had been approved for 100 percent extended time.” Huffman is accused of forwarding the e-mail to CW-1 and a counselor at HUFFMAN’s daughter’s high school with the note, “Hurray! She got it.”
The high school counselor wrote back to Huffman the next day, stating, “Now you will register [your daughter] for the December 3rd SAT … Collegeboard considers double time a school based exam, so [our high school] is the test center. I will proctor test on Dec 4th & 5th and that’s the process in nutshell.”
According to the documents, Huffman forwarded the e-mail to CW-1 with the note, “Ruh Ro! Looks like [my daughter’s high school] wants to provide own proctor.” CW-1 responded, “We will speak about it.” In subsequent e-mails, CW-1 and Felicity Huffman “agreed to tell the high school counselor that HUFFMAN’s daughter would take the SAT at a different location on December 2nd and 3rd—a Saturday and Sunday—so that she would not miss any school,” the documents allege.
The documents allege that Huffman’s daughter’s SAT score improved dramatically over her PSAT.
“Ultimately, HUFFMAN’s daughter received a score of 1420 on the SAT, an improvement of approximately 400 points over her PSAT, taken without CW-2 one year earlier. On or about December 19, 2017, KWF paid Dvorskiy $40,000 for administering the SAT to HUFFMAN’s daughter and three other students. On or about December 27, 2017, KWF paid CW-2 $35,000 for purporting to proctor the exam for HUFFMAN’s daughter and exams for several other clients of CW-1.”
The documents contain the names and identifiers for other people allegedly involved in the plot.
The affidavit continues, “On or about February 27, 2018, HUFFMAN and her spouse made a purported contribution of $15,000 to KWF. On or about March 21, 2018, Masera sent them a letter thanking them for the purported donation and falsely stating that it would ‘allow us to move forward with our plans to provide educational and self-enrichment programs to disadvantaged youth.’ The letter falsely stated that no goods or services were exchanged for the $15,000.”