Manti Te’o: There’s No Way I Could Be Part of a Hoax

The football player tells ESPN he was the victim.

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o told ESPN Friday he was the victim in the recently exposed hoax involving his dead girlfriend. He said that the man who carried out the lie, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, later apologized to him through a Twitter direct message. Te’o’s comments about the allegations are his first public remarks since Deadspin broke the story that his dead girlfriend never existed. He spoke with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap in an off-camera interview.

Te’o said he still believed that his girlfriend Lennay Kekua, whom he never actually met, still existed until Wednesday when Tuiasosopo admitted to the hoax. The real life “Catfish” scenario of a fake online relationship continues to play out as Te’o prepares for the NFL Draft in Tampa. (New York Post)

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