Influencer Olivia Jade, sometimes known as Olivia Jade Giannulli, is the daughter of Full House actor Lori Loughlin and fashion mogul, Mossimo Giannulli.
She became wrapped up in the 2019 college admissions scandal after her parents were caught-out, having bribed her way into the University of Southern California (USC).
Many sympathized with Jade in Netflix’s Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal documentary as it showed a montage of her YouTube videos, amidst uncovering the scandal. In these videos, she expresses candidly that she wasn’t interested in going to school and she wanted to drop out of high school, but her parents wouldn’t let her.
Producer Jon Karmen commented on including the montage. He said, “Both Lori and Olivia are beloved public figures and I think people saw their association with this scandal as a betrayal of trust.”
He explained: “With regards to Olivia, we wanted to give people a better understanding of her life by examining parts of her vlogs.”
Karmen felt as though it was important to give the audience a more nuanced look into the “splashy” celebrity situation, as he mentioned that it was clear that Youtube was Jade’s passion — not studying at USC.
Who is Olivia Jade?
During the college admissions scandal, Olivia Jade’s parents were caught having paid approximately $500,000 in bribes to a USC coach in order for Jade and her sister to be accepted. Loughlin and Giannulli had the Instagram star pose on a rowing workout machine and the images were then edited to make her look like a competitive rower.
Jade was then able to gain admissions to USC under the guise of being an athletic scholar.
There was an intense moment shown in the documentary where Jade’s father was reported as having gone head-to-head with her high school guidance counselor who doubted that Jade was academically or athletically qualified to be admitted to USC.
Prior to the scandal, Jade was a successful YouTuber and influencer. She had multiple sponsorships and had a makeup collection at Sephora. Since the scandal, her viewership numbers have dropped drastically, and many of her partnerships suspended doing business with her.
What has Olivia Jade said since?
Now that her parents have both completed their jail time, Jade has been more open about the entire controversy. While she hasn’t fully shared her involvement with the coerced college admissions, she has spoken about it briefly on her YouTube channel and on the talk show Red Table.
Jade expressed, “I think what’s so important to me is to learn from the mistake, not to now be shamed or punished and never be given a second chance.”
At the time of the scandal’s outbreak, many of Jade’s followers created YouTube videos and other posts to share their disappointment in her behavior. In the Netflix documentary, a fan is shown accusing Jade of knowingly taking away an admissions slot from, potentially, one of her fans.
Neither Jade nor her sister are currently attending USC and their current standing with the school — expelled/banned— has not been confirmed due to confidentiality reasons.
The influencer is currently back to her routine ways and has been active on social media and YouTube after taking a long hiatus during the court case.
What were her parents sentenced with?
Actor and mother Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison, two years of supervised release, a $150,000 fine and 100 hours of community service.
Designer and father Giannulli had a greater sentence. He was sentenced to 5 months in a minimum-security prison, two years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and 250 hours of community service.
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal is currently streaming on Netflix.