At this point, Lori Loughlin has not taken a plea deal in the college admissions cheating case and could be sentenced to 40 years maximum jail time for the charges pressed against her. But pleading guilty still isn't a likely option for her, even if it would give her a lighter sentence. People reports that her daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Giannulli are a big reason why Loughlin won't do it.

“She is very concerned about what a guilty plea would do to her daughters, who may not have grasped everything that was going on,” a source told the outlet. “Yes, she can think about the public perception of her, but that’s nothing compared to what her daughters think of her. So that is something that has understandably made her less likely to enter a plea."

Loughlin could have taken a plea deal earlier this week—before she was indicted for money laundering, which has a 20-year jail sentence attached to it alone. But prosecutors would only accept plea deals with jail time. At minimum, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli would have served 2-2.5 year jail sentences. The couple is accused of paying $500,000 to make it appear their daughters were rowing team recruits to guarantee their admission to USC.

A source told People earlier that Loughlin and her husband “weren’t ready to accept that [a plea with jail time attached]. They’re really not seeing how serious this is.”

Loughlin also still hasn't grasp that paying half a million dollars to make her daughters falsely appear as athletic recruits isn't legal, a source told People. “It’s just taking some time for it to sink in that what she was allegedly doing could be considered illegal,” the source explained. “To her, it wasn’t egregious behavior. Was it entitled and perhaps selfish? Perhaps. But she didn’t see it as being a legal violation. From the beginning, she didn’t want to take a deal, because she felt that she hadn’t done anything that any mom wouldn’t have done, if they had the means to do so. So this wasn’t her being obstinate; this was her truly not understanding the seriousness of the allegations.”

Alyssa Bailey News and Strategy Editor Alyssa Bailey is the news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton).

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