In 2018 Lori Loughlin was arrested for conspiracy to commit fraud. It changed the trajectory of her teenage daughter's life.

In March 2019, Olivia Jade Giannulli arguably had it all. 

She was merely months into studying at the University of Southern California, the daughter of loving and famous parents (Full House actor Lori Loughlin and Mossimo founder, Mossimo Giannulli) and had an enviable career at just 19 years old. 

Olivia Jade had almost two million followers, a string of lucrative brand deals and was part of an exclusive hub of social media creators who were making hundreds of thousands of dollars in influencer deals. 

But in March 2019, it turned upside down when her parents were caught out in a college admissions bribery case.

Watch a short clip from Olivia Jade's YouTube Channel, Post continues after video.

When Lori was being arrested by federal prosecutors for paying bribes to get her daughter accepted into USC, Olivia was on Rick Caruso's yacht in the Bahamas. 

He was on the board of trustees at USC and the father of the famous socialite's friend, Gianna. 

Olivia quickly returned to the US when reports surfaced that Lori, along with her husband, had paid $500,000 to get their two daughters (Olivia and Bella Giannulli) into University. 

"My daughter and a group of students left for spring break prior to the government’s announcement yesterday," Caruso told TMZ at the time. "Once we became aware of the investigation, the young woman decided it would be in her best interests to return home."

The two were part of a widespread bribery case dubbed 'Operation Varsity Blues'. Involved in the scandal were Hollywood actors and business executives who were charged with participating in the largest college admission crime ever prosecuted. 

The investigation involved SAT/ACT administrators, exam proctors, coaches and college administrators too – oh, and 33 parents. 

Lori Loughlin outside court. Image: Getty.

Lori and Mossimo were some of the most high-profile celebrities, alongside Desperate Housewife actor Felicity Huffman, to be involved.

Lori's kids, despite not being athletes, were recruited to the USC crew team. They'd had no experience playing the sport. They didn't plan to participate either. The plan of including them in the team ensured that both Bella and Olivia would be admitted as recruited athletes. Their academic abilities had no impact on their admittance.

Lori was sentenced to two months behind bars, 100 hours of community service and a one-year supervised release. She'd also have to pay a $150,000 fine.

Mossimo got a heftier sentence and was given five months in prison, a $250,000 fine and 250 hours of community service. 

The fine in total cost the pair $400,000 – $100,000 less than what they paid to admit their daughters to college.

Olivia's social media pages remain silent during the ordeal until six months later, in August when she returned to Instagram to address the tabloids.

She shared a picture of herself with two fingers up, tagging media outlets including the Daily Mail, Star Magazine, People and Perez Hilton with the hashtags "#close #source #says". 

Image: Instagram @oliviajade.

The bold post followed after a tonne of backlash online, given she stated in videos and on social media she didn't care about attending college. Following criticism, she clarified she did believe it was "important".

Before her parent's arrest, she tweeted, "YouTube will always be my #1 passion. I promise I’d way rather be filming 24/7 than sitting in 6 hours of classes straight but an education is also super important to me so thank u for ur patience and letting me figure out time management. Ily bbs."

Following the scandal making headlines, Olivia was dropped by Sephora, whom she was partnered with for her exclusive eyeshadow palette. 

"After careful review of recent developments, we have made the decision to end the Sephora Collection partnership with Olivia Jade, effective immediately," the company told The Wrap.

In December 2019, she returned to YouTube with a two-minute-long video where she addressed the mounting criticism and her silence.

"Obviously I've been gone for a really long time and as much as I wish I could talk about all of this. It's really hard for me to say this because I know it's something that needs to be addressed," she said. 

"I'm legally not allowed to speak on anything going on right now."

Then a week later, the disgraced YouTuber sat down with Jada Pinkett Smith on the Red Table Talk, where she addressed her experience over the last nine months as "eye-opening".

"There’s no justifying or excusing what happened," she said. "What happened was wrong… It's so important to me to learn from the mistake."

Jada's co-host (and mother), Adrienne Banfield-Norris was unhappy with the contents of the episode, admitting she had some issues with the influencer's appearance. 

"It's really ironic that she chose three Black women to reach out for her redemption story," she noted after being told Olivia had requested to sit down for an interview. "It's bothersome on so many levels… it's the epitome of white privilege."

Initially, Olivia didn't understand why people were upset with her family when news of the scandal broke.

"I didn't have a good understanding of what happened and what was wrong," she said before adding how embarrassing her lack of awareness was. 

Adrienne addressed Olivia's privilege, admitting she was "exhausted". 

"There is so much violent dehumanisation that the Black community has to go through on a daily basis. There's so much devastation, particularly this year," she said. "There's so much inequality and inequity that when you come to the table, child, please."

Olivia Jade on Red Table Talk. Image: Facebook.

She continued, saying, "I'm exhausted with everything that we have to deal with as a community and I just don't have the energy to put into the fact that you lost your endorsement, that you're not in school right now. At the end of the day, you're gonna be okay. Your parents are gonna go in and do 60 days, and pay the fine, and you’ll go on and be ok, and there’s so many of us that it's not gonna be that situation. It's very difficult for me to care in this atmosphere."

Olivia said it took her "a little longer" to realise why people had reacted negatively to paying her way into college. 

"A huge part of privilege is not knowing you have privilege," she said. "In the bubble that I grew up in, I didn't know what was wrong with this. I didn't realise that it's privilege, I thought this is what everybody does." 

Later, she admitted she didn't return to her University.

"I shouldn’t have been there in the first place, clearly," she said and later added, "When I got home [from spring break in 2019], I just felt so ashamed. I was like, I can’t go back [to school]... I never went back. I was too embarrassed."

"We had the means to do something and we completely took it and ran with it. It was something that was wrong," she said.

"It really can’t be excused. On paper, it's bad – it's really bad. But I think what a lot of people don't know is my parents came from a place of just, 'I love my kids. I just want to help my kids – whatever is best for them – I worked my whole life to provide for my family.' I think they thought it was normal."

Feature Image: Getty/Instagram.

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