Danica McKellar Speaks Out on Lori Loughlin’s Prison Sentence

Hallmark & GAC Family star Danica McKellar recently spoke out about Lori Loughlin’s prison sentence. Loughlin served two months in prison, along with community service. While Loughlin is no longer starring in Hallmark productions, she did recently revive a Hallmark character for a GAC Family series.

McKellar Said She Personally Doesn’t Think Loughlin Should Have Gone to Prison

While attending the iHeartRadio Music Awards in late March, McKellar spoke with Insider about Loughlin and her prison sentence.

McKellar said:

She’s a wonderful person, she always has been, and it would be challenging to find a person who hasn’t made a mistake in their life… She served her time. I’m not going to speak to whether or not she deserved that, personally I don’t think so — but she served the time.

Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli were both sentenced to prison after they pleaded guilty to charges of paying bribes for their daughters to get into college at the University of Southern California. There are 60 other parents and coaches who were charged, and those who pleaded guilty served anywhere from a few weeks to nine months, WDHD reported.

Loughlin reported to the medium-security prison, FCI Victorville, in late October 2020, Us Magazine reported. She had requested FCI Victorville because it had a low-security camp of 300, where she served her time, Us Magazine shared.  A source told Us Magazine that Loughlin had hoped to be in prison at a different time than her husband, so one parent could be available for their children.

Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison plus two years of supervised release. Her sentence also included 100 hours of community service and a $150,000 fine, Deadline reported.

Loughlin was released from prison just in time to celebrate New Year’s with her family.

Loughlin Lost Her Role on ‘When Calls the Heart’

Once a lead on Hallmark’s “When Calls the Heart,” Loughlin had to leave the show after her indictment in the Operation Varsity Blues scandal. Her parts were edited out of the final season that she filmed.

However, Loughlin revived her role as Abigail for GAC Family’s spinoff series, “When Hope Calls.” GAC Family picked up the series for season 2, and Loughlin starred in a two-episode Christmas special that aired in December 2021.

When the news that Loughlin was going to star in the first two episodes of “When Hope Calls” on GAC Family broke, Hallmark fans began wondering what that meant for Loughlin’s future on Hallmark. Could she possibly return to “When Calls the Heart” or any other Hallmark project?

The official Hallmark Twitter account responded to that question, writing: “…Hallmark Channel has not cast Lori Loughlin in any current projects, nor do we have any plans to cast her in the future. She was cast by GAC Family, a wholly separate cable network not affiliated with Hallmark Channel or Crown Media Family Networks.”

McKellar is not the only Hallmark star sympathetic to Loughlin.

Brian Bird, creator of “When Calls the Heart,” explained that getting Loughlin back on the series would be tough, no matter how much he would like to see her reprise the role of Abigail.

In an interview with Charisma Podcast Network’s Greenelines podcast and host Dr. Steve Greene, Bird shared, “I personally would love nothing more than that happening in Hope Valley. Whether or not we can do it is another question. There’s a lot of moving parts to that decision. There’s a lot of other stakeholders besides me who would have to say yes to that. So I can’t say with certainty that we can pull that off. I hope we can, but I can’t say that we can actually pull it off…”

In an interview with ET Canada, Krakow talked about how much she’d like to see Loughlin return to “When Calls the Heart.” When asked if there was a chance that Abigail might come back in a future season, Krakow said:

From your lips to God’s ears. I truly, truly hope so. It would make me so happy to see Abigail back in Hope Valley. And I think there are still a lot of really beautiful stories for her character to get to tell. I would welcome her back with open arms. So let’s hope.

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