Olivia Jade comes to the Red Table to finally face the college admissions scandal fallout

“Her being here is the epitome of white privilege to me.” With those words, Jada Pinkett Smith’s mother Adrienne Banfield Norris, one of the three hosts of Red Table Talk, opened the latest episode of the series by leaving no doubt in viewers’ minds that she was not happy about this week’s guest: Olivia Jade Giannulli. The beauty influencer and YouTube star is one of Lori Loughlin and Massimo Giannulli’s two daughters. The couple are currently serving time in prison for their parts in what has become known as the infamous "college admissions scandal" wherein they paid Olivia Jade and sister Isabella Rose’s ways into a top tier U.S. college. The scheme bypassed the admissions process and ultimately deprived less-privileged would-be students of their hard-earned spot at the school. Like Norris says, it’s the epitome of privilege and Olivia Jade has only recently realized that fact.

“When all this first happened and it became public,” the influencer told her hosts, “I remember thinking — my thoughts are completely different now —  ‘How are people mad about this?’ I know that sounds so silly, but in the bubble that I grew up in, I didn’t know so much outside of it. A lot of kids in that bubble, their parents were donating to schools and doing stuff that advantaged them,” she explained. “It’s not fair and it’s not right, but it was happening. And so, when this first came out, I was like, ‘I don’t really understand what’s wrong with this.'”

“I think what a lot of people don’t know is that my parents just came from a place of, ‘I love my kids, I just want to help my kids. Whatever is best for them. I think they thought it was normal,” she said, admitting that, “there is no justifying or excusing what happened because what happened was wrong. I think every single person in my family can be like, ‘That was messed up. That was a mistake.’”

Giannulli said that the reason it took her so long to speak out about the scandal was due to legal restraints around her parents’ case. Now that a ruling has been made, she’s free to offer her explanation and apology. Saying that she does not want to be viewed as a victim, Olivia Jade told her hosts, “I don’t want pity. I don’t deserve pity. What’s so important to me is to learn from the mistake — not to now be shamed and punished and never given a second chance because I’m 21. I feel like I deserve a second chance to redeem myself, to show I’ve grown. I didn’t come on here to try and win people over… I just want to apologize for contributing to these social inequalities, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.”

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Olivia Jade told RTT that after she found out about the scam, she did not return to college, both out of embarrassment and shame and because of a dawning realization that the spot she was occupying did not rightfully belong to her. Her work representing a wide array of beauty brands also dried up, but she’s now returned to YouTube. She hasn’t spoken to her parents since they began serving their time but she imagines that Loughlin and Giannulli are likely going through a period of reflection while in prison. She also added that, “They didn’t really have much to say except like, ‘I’m so sorry. I really messed up in trying to give the best to you and your sister.'”

“It’s been hard. I think for anybody, no matter what the situation is, you don’t want to see your parents go to prison,” said Giannulli. “But also, I think it’s necessary for us to move on and move forward. I’m super close with my parents, especially my mom, she’s like my best friend, so it’s definitely been really hard not to be able to talk to her.”

While Jada and Willow Smith appeared to give Olivia Jade the benefit of the doubt for most of the half-hour chat, Norris had less enthusiasm to devote to Giannulli’s public relations rehabilitation. She told her guest, “I am 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 endorsements or you’re not in school right now because, at the end of the day… your parents are going to go in and they’re going to do their 60 days and they’re going to pay their fine and you guys will go on… and you will live your life, and there are so many of us that it is not going to be that situation. It just makes it very difficult right now for me to care... it's very difficult for me to feel compassionate about you.”

Norris added that her feelings are not personally directed at Giannulli herself, but at the situation and the deep systemic inequalities that created it. "But this is why I am glad," she continued. "Because what I am hearing from you is that there's an interest and a desire to learn and figure out where you fit in the world and what your role is to try to make a difference."

For her part, Olivia Jade has at the very least learned to recognize she's "the poster child for white privilege" and that her family's privileged bubble was what made the whole scandal possible. She was willing to accept those facts with a measure of humility and acknowledge she still has a lot to learn. “I feel like a huge part of having privilege is not knowing you have privilege,” she remarked. “I think I had to go through the backlash because when you read it, you realize there’s some truth in it. I understood that people were upset and angry. Maybe it took me a little longer to realize what for — but man am I glad I did realize.”

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