By Emilee White
The loss of a loved one is an unimaginable pain, but the loss of a loved one who never actually existed is something that cannot even be described, and Manti Te’o found himself dealing with both.
In September 2012, Te’o announced that both his girlfriend, who was battling Leukemia, and grandmother had passed away. Despite his tragic losses, Te’o played in every game that season and found himself on the Heisman Trophy candidate list, his reasoning being that he promised his girlfriend he would continue to play even if she succumbed to her illness. It was only four months later when Te’o found out his relationship was nothing but a big, fat lie.
At the start of 2013, Te’o was just starting the final semester of his senior year when a bomb-shell tip about him was being delivered to a journalist at Deadspin. The tip, which was anonymous, launched an investigation into Te’o deceased girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. It didn’t take long for the journalists assigned to the Te’o story to find out that not only did Kekua not exist, she was actually Ronaiah Naya Tuiasosopo, a transgender woman (at the time, she identified as a man). It gets crazier; Tuiasosopo and Te’o know each other.
In the Deadspin article, a source explained Tuiasosopo and Te’o were either family or family-friends. Twitter also showed multiple tweets and retweets between the two. Deadspin broke the Te’o story and on the same day, Notre Dame’s spokesman Dennis Brown released a statement saying,
“On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiate herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.”
As time went on, the story continued to unfold and it revealed a tangled web of lies that were spun by Tuiasosopo to snare Te’o. The hoax relationship was exclusively online, making it easy for Tuiasosopo to continue the ruse and even went as far as using personal photos from a classmates’ Facebook to trick Te’o into thinking it was actually Kekua.
“We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her,” Teo said in a statement issued shortly after the story hit the news. “To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating. It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother’s death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life.”
It was obvious Tuiasosopo was involved with the same, but there was growing speculation that Te’o was also in on it because previous comments he had made contradicted some of the evidence. For instance, Te’o had initially said he met Kekua at a Stanford-Notre Dame game, but as we know, they never actually met in person. Te’o eventually went on to do an interview with ESPN to set the record straight.
As an active member in the LDS Church, Te’o knew his family would not have approved of his relationship with Kekua if they knew he had yet to meet her in person. So, he lied. Te’o also debunked another suspicious detail on Katie with Katie Couric, and played three different voicemails from who he thought was Kekua on the other end of the phone.
“It didn’t sound like a man,” Te’o said during the interview with Couric, according to ESPN. “It sounded like a woman. It’s incredible that he can make that noise.”
Only a short time later, it was explained to Dr. Phil the reason for why the hoax relationship was created; Tuiasosopo had fallen in love with Te’o. While revealing the true intentions, Tuiasosopo also recreated the voice that was used whenever the two were on the phone, authenticating Te’o’s claim.
It’s been roughly 11 months since Te’o personal life became national news, but this moment in his life is well behind him. Te’o’s professional career began shortly after the catfishing incident when he was picked up by the San Diego Chargers in the NFL Draft only a few months later, and he has since played for the New Orleans Saints and the Chicago Bears. Te’o also married his now-wife in 2020 and the couple welcomed a child in 2021.
Photo Credit: JamesChicago
