Lori Loughlin Gives First Major Interview Since College Admissions Scandal

Five years after her infamous college admissions scandal, Lori Loughlin is marking her return to the spotlight with a First for Women Magazine cover story interview.

The Full House alum, 59, did not directly address the controversy in the interview. However, she did open up about forgiveness and learning to move forward.

“I try to be a forgiving person. I’m not one to hold onto stuff. Stuff happens to everyone. We’ve all been in positions to ask for forgiveness but to ask for it, you have to learn and know how to give forgiveness, too,” she said.

“My family wasn’t one to hold grudges. I didn’t grow up in a household where if you made a mistake, you weren’t forgiven,” she continued. “No one is perfect, we all make mistakes. So I was always told to let stuff go. And I think for your own health, you have to let things go because you can’t hang on to negativity. Life’s too short.”

As for her secret to overcoming life’s challenges, Loughlin said: “For me, it’s just persevering.”

“As an actress, I hear ‘no’ a lot, so I just have to be myself and persevere and try not to let in negativity,” she explained. “My advice is to just keep moving forward. Everyone has good times and bad times. That’s life. I think you just have to pick yourself up. Nobody said life was going to be a breeze. There’s beauty in life, but there’s also hardship in life.”

Thinking about her life today, Loughlin acknowledged how she’s “kind,” “strong” and “open to life, open to experiences.”

“And I’m grateful. So I’d say I’m strong, grateful, open and kind,” she added.

In May 2020, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli pleaded guilty to wire and mail fraud after they were accused of paying $500,000 for their daughters Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Rose Giannulli’s admission into the University of Southern California. The two were falsely designated as recruits to the university’s crew team even though neither ever participated in the sport.

Loughlin was eventually sentenced to two months in federal prison while her husband received a five-month sentence in August of the same year. The actress almost completed her sentence before she was released from prison in December 2020.

Since then, Loughlin has slowly been making her return to TV, beginning with reprising her role as Abigail Stanton in When Hope Calls: A Country Christmas — a spinoff to When Calls the Heart — in December 2021 on Great American Family. She also starred opposite James Tupper in the network’s January 2023 TV film Fall Into Winter and appeared with Tupper and Jesse Hutch in A Christmas Blessing the following November.

More recently, Loughlin made an appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm. The episode, which aired in March, saw the actress playing a heightened version of herself as she poked fun at her involvement in the college admissions scheme.

When Loughlin is rejected from country clubs around Los Angeles due to her tarnished reputation post-scandal, Larry David sponsors her and gets her approved for membership after performing a motivational speech.

Eventually, David learns that the actress is notorious for cutting corners when she cheats in golf, lies to redeem handicap benefits and gets the best tee times through NSFW ways.

Jeff Schaffer, executive producer for Curb Your Enthusiasm, revealed that Loughlin was more than enthusiastic about parodying herself on the show’s 12th and final season.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“This was an idea that we loved from a writer named Teddy Bressman. But it’s not going to be funny with some sort of thinly veiled surrogate. It only works if we get Lori,” Schaffer recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. “So we called her manager up, who loved it, and who then talked to Lori, and she said: ‘I’m in, I’m totally game.’ And she was. She was so great.”

“Everything we threw at her, she was game to do. She makes the episode. I’m so glad she wanted to do it,” he added.