Olivia Jade Opens Up About Parents' Prison Sentences and College Scandal

Your dad just went. Yes. How's that been?

It's been hard. I think for anybody, no matter what the situation is, you don't wanna see your parents go to prison. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

But also, I think it's necessary for us to move on- Right ... and move forward. Totally.

Olivia Jade breaks her silence about the college admissions scandal that landed both her parents in prison.

I'm nervous. Yeah. You guys should feel my heart. It's like...

Yeah. Yeah. But I'm excited. I think, I'm definitely ready to address some things.

On Tuesday, the 21-year-old beauty influencer appeared on Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith, Jada's mom, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, and Jada's 20-year-old daughter, Willow, and opened up about the whole experience for the first time.

Lori, what have you said to your daughter?

Do they have a plan on how they're gonna deal with this? Get out of the way.

Get out of the way. Now ET's breaking down the seven must-see moments from her tell-all sit-down, starting with this.

I actually haven't spoken to either of them.

There, there's a quarantine phase just 'cause of COVID, so I think that is the reason, but I'm not too sh- I just haven't heard anything, so I'm just waiting.

Olivia reveals she hasn't spoken to either of her parents since they've been in prison, where they're serving their sentences after pleading guilty in May to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud.

I'm super close with my parents, especially my mom.

She's like my best friend. So it's definitely been really hard not being able to talk to her, but I know she's strong and I know it's a good reflection period. Mm.

I'm trying to look at the positives in situations. Right. Totally. You know?

And I know that it's a positive that she's in there right now.

She gets to really rethink everything that happened, kind of figure out, you know, when she comes out, what she wants to do with what she's learned through all of this. Right.

And I think that hopefully will be a blessing in the end.

Mossimo Giannulli and Lori Loughlin paid $500,000 in bribes to get both Olivia and her older sister, 22-year-old Bella, admitted to the University of Southern California as recruits for the crew team, even though neither of them had ever participated in the sport.

Olivia says it was her dad who really wanted her and her older sister, Bella, to go to USC.

I really believe my dad has attachment issues and didn't want us to leave California, for starters.

I think he just loves his kids- Yeah. Mm ... and we're his two daughters.

Wanted them close. And wanted them close. He was so tunnel visioned on, "I just want my kids to have a good college experience, and I just want them to have an amazing education, and I know I can give that to them."

Neither of them- Mm ... went to college, so I think it was important for them like, "We didn't get to have that.

I wanna give it to you." Yeah. But they wanted to give it to us a little too much.

Right. You know? Yeah. Right, right. All that echoes what Lori told ET back in 2016.

I want them to be happy, so I wanna be supportive of everything they wanna do. Right.

But I do want them to have somewhat of a normal, you know, finish out of high school, college experience.

Maybe because I didn't have that, I w- I really want that for them.

Olivia also opened up about the moment she learned of her parents' arrests.

I just remember getting a call. Mm-hmm. And it was like, "Hey Liv. Have you talked to your mom?"

And I was like, "No, why?" And they were like, "Well, I'll just let you talk to her and then call me back."

Right. And so I hang up the phone, and I had this like really weird gut feeling.

I didn't know what she was talking about, but I was like, "I'm just gonna search my mom's name up."

Then it's everywhere. I knew any second everybody was gonna know too.

It's- Right. And I remember just like freezing and feeling so ashamed.

I went home and hid myself for probably like three or four months.

Olivia says she never went back to school after that.

I was too embarrassed and- Yeah. Yeah, it was... I, and you know what?

I shouldn't have been there in the first place, clearly.

And she admits when everything first went down, she didn't get what all the upset was about.

100% honestly, when it first happened, I didn't look at it and say, "Oh my God," like, "How dare we do this?"

I was like, "Why is everybody complaining?

I'm confused what we did." Yeah. Right. And that's embarrassing to admit.

Right. That's embarrassing within itself that I walked around my whole 20 years of life not realizing like you have insane privilege.

You're like the poster child of white privilege.

Right. And you had no idea. But she insists she and her family have learned from this mistake.

I'm not trying to victimize myself. Right. I don't want pity.

I don't deserve pity. We messed up. I just want a second chance to be like, "I recognize I messed up." Right.

And for so long I wasn't able to talk about this because of the legalities behind it.

I never got to say, "I'm really sorry that this happened," or, "I really own that this was a big mess-up on everybody's part."

But I think everybody feels that way in my family right now.

And Adrienne, she took Olivia to task. Do you understand why, um, different people in the community would be upset?

Hundred- Do you have any understanding of why I would be upset at, at your being here and, and what you all did?

Yeah, she went in, drawing attention to Olivia's privilege.

There is so much devastation, particularly this year, 2020- Mm-hmm ... with the pandemic and everything being brought to the table just how there's so much, um, uh- Inequality ... yeah, inequality and inequity. Mm-hmm.

Um, that when you come to the table with something like this, it's like, child, please.

Right. Mm-hmm. And while the YouTube star may have lost brand deals in the wake of the scandal, she's ready to get back in the game.

A source tells ET, quote, "Olivia has been wanting to get back in the limelight and share her side of things for some time now, and is looking forward to getting back out there."

ET's source adds that Olivia misses her YouTube career and, quote, "Knows there will be some hurdles ahead of her, but she is ready to face things head-on and ultimately get back into the swing of things."

And ultimately, Olivia says she wants to use her platform for good.

When I was on YouTube, it was so, "Well, just come along with my world.

Like see where I'm at. Let's just go for my journey."

Right. And I, now when I go back, I just wanna make it very clear and very aware like, there are big problems going on in the world- Yeah ... that are outside my bubble, and I'm so comfortable that I don't have to go outside of it. Right. Right.

So it's making that change of like, yeah, you could sit where you are and it wouldn't affect you, but how much better of a person would you be if you used your blessings to help somebody else?