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Dr. Phil interviewed Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, man allegedly behind Manti Te’o hoax

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:52:00 +0000

Manti Te'o, the publicly humiliated Notre Dame linebacker who claims to have been the target of a complex online hoax, has told his side of the story to ABC's Katie Couric (and he insists that he's not gay). Now we're about to hear from Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man who allegedly created the identity of the woman Te'o thought he fell in love with, Lennay Kekua. TMZ reports that the apparently grief-stricken Tuiasosopo sat down with none other than professional soul-cuddler Dr. Phil in an "emotional and deep" interview yesterday.

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo’s cousin may have been the voice of Lennay Kekua

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:30:00 +0000

Who was behind the voice of Lennay Kekua?

This question, which is just one of the many surrounding Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o and the discovery that his dead girlfriend was fake, has taken on a life of its own: After Deadspin uncovered the hoax last week, reporting that Manti Te'o's girlfriend never died of leukemia because she had never even existed, a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo came forward as the orchestrator of Kekua's social media account. A teary-eyed Ronaiah Tuiasosopo allegedly admitted to setting up the hoax, and on Wednesday, his lawyer told the Daily News that he was also the man behind the voice of the woman, too. Then Manti Te'o released three voicemails from Kekua, aired Wednesday during an interview with ABC's Katie Couric; voicemails that sounded like they were left by a woman. Incredulous that Te'o could have been talking to a man for so long, he told Couric, “If he somehow made that voice, that’s incredible, that’s an incredible talent to do that. Especially every single day." On the same day, TMZ claimed to have confirmed that the voice was indeed that of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's.

Manti Te’o to Katie Couric: “What I went through was real”

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Americans were hoping for answers to the many questions raised by the increasingly bizarre "catfish" hoax Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o claims to have been ensnared in, attempting to understand how someone with such high visibility could have gotten into a relationship with a woman who had never even existed. Was Te'o part of the hoax? Was it a publicity stunt to propel him towards the Heisman Award? Did he concoct the story with a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo to hide his sexuality (that he's gay)? Or is Manti Te'o just really, really that gullible?

His first televised interview, hosted by Katie Couric, gave few definitive answers. The explanation Te'o's sticking with is the latter, though: he said that he's a man of faith, and had blinding faith in this woman. Te'o's parents joined him and Couric towards the end of the show to say they were proud of their son for how he treated Lennay Kekua, the girlfriend Deadspin uncovered as fake, whom they all believed to be real and in serious pain (Kekua's tragedies included the death of her father, a diagnosis of leukemia and a coma resulting from a car crash). "What I went through was real," Te'o told Couric. “It was very real, Katie. It was very very real.”

What did Manti Te’o know about Lennay Kekua?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:10:00 +0000

Sports reporters have been in a frenzy trying to determine to what extent, if any, Notre Dame linebacker and Heisman Trophy runner-up Manti Te’o was in on the hoax that's become one of the most confusing scandals in recent memory. The football star will give his first televised interview at 3 p.m. ET today with Katie Couric. This should catch you up on everything known so far about Manti Te'o and the death of his fake girlfriend:

The background:

Manti Te’o's success was one of the biggest college sports stories of 2012. He won eight postseason awards as a linebacker for Notre Dame, becoming one of the most decorated college football players of all time. He was runner-up for this year's Heisman Trophy, the most coveted individual prize in NCAA football and was projected to be a first-round NFL pick.

Until recently, Te'o was also living the life of a media darling. A devout Mormon, he identifies himself as family-oriented and religious. Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel, who wrote a cover story on Te’o in October, describes his celebrity appeal: “Te'o graduated from Barack Obama's high school, practices Mitt Romney's religion and has post football career goals similar to Tim Tebow's.”

The coverage of his football heroics was all the more adoring for the tragedies he overcame to achieve them. The story went that his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and his leukemia-stricken girlfriend, Melelengei “Lennay” Kekua, died within six hours of each other in September shortly before he delivered a dominating performance against Michigan State.

Last week the world learned that college sports’ most inspirational story was a fiction: After receiving an anonymous tip, Deadspin broke the news on Jan. 16 that Lennay Kekua did not die, because she had never existed in the first place.

Manti Te’o dated real girlfriend shortly after death of fake girlfriend

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 22:40:00 +0000

Every real, actual girlfriend of disgraced Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o henceforth will be subject to more scrutiny (or at least more interest) after Deadspin exposed that the girlfriend of the linebacker, who died the same day as his grandmother, was not real. The fake woman, 22-year-old Lennay Kekua, had a fake death from fake leukemia in September; Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick implied that Te'o was catfished and fell for an online hoax.

But TMZ is now reporting that the devastated Te'o had a real girfriend just two months after Kekua's death, in November, which was still one month before Te'o allegedly learned that Kekua had never existed. TMZ's tips have been verified by a Twitter photo (although Kekua had a Twitter account, too) posted of the two, and the "dates are consistent with the story Manti is telling friends." The couple met under similar circumstances as Te'o met Kekua -- at a football game.