Notre Dame Football star Manti Te’o captured America’s hearts in 2012 when he lead the Fighting Irish to an appearance at the national championship game, inspired by the deaths of his grandmother and his girlfriend.
However, the story came crashing down when Deadspin reported it could find no evidence that the girlfriend actually existed.
That story is the subject of a two-part documentary premiering on Netflix August 16-Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist
Sports Illustrated recalls that Te’o had announced his supposed girlfriend, “Lennay Kekua,” had died of leukemia just hours after his grandmother died.
Instead Te’o has been catfished, a prank planned by three people. The linebacker would tell ESPN he was too embarrassed to admit the truth.
“I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn’t meet,” he said. “So I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away.”
Naya Tuiasosopo, the transgender woman who had gone by Lennay Kekua will be featured in the documentary as will Te’o himself.
“It was impossible to miss this story when it first broke in 2012, but as viewers will see in the documentary, what really transpired is so much more complex and nuanced than we understood at the time,” said executive producers Chapman Way and Maclain Way said to People. “We’re incredibly grateful to both Manti Te’o and Ronaiah ‘Naya’ Tuiasosopo for sharing their truths with us.”
The pictures Te’o said were Kekua’s were actually a 22-year-old Southern California woman who said he never met the Notre Dame star.
It turned out Te’o had developed his relationship with “Kekua” over Twitter.
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