As she pleaded guilty for her role in the college admissions scandal Monday, a tearful Felicity Huffman tried to explain what motivated her.

Huffman told the court in Boston that the federal government’s allegations were true but insisted her daughter was diagnosed years earlier with a legitimate learning disability that made her eligible for extra time on tests.

“My daughter has been seeing a neuro-psychologist since she was 8 years old,” Huffman said. The Golden Globe winner said she didn’t want to give the impression that her daughter’s psychologist, who helped them get extended time on the college entrance examination, knew about the scheme engineered by mastermind William “Rick” Singer to bolster her child’s test scores, she explained.

“I just didn’t want to create the impression that the neuropsychiatrist had anything to do with this,” she said.


Her comments come after a public apology last month.

“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. I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues and the educational community,” she wrote in April.

“I want to apologize to them and, especially, I want to apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly. My daughter knew absolutely nothing about my actions, and in my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her.”

Huffman, 56, admitted to paying $15,000 to Singer, a Newport Beach college admissions consultant, to inflate her daughter’s SAT score. She will be sentenced Sept. 13.