Notre Dame's Te'o “He's victim of a hoax girlfriend” "HE Says"

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MIAMI GARDENS, FL - JANUARY 07: Manti Te'o #5 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish warms up prior to playing against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game at Sun Life Stadium on January 7, 2013 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Mike Ehrmann/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Linebacker Manti Te'o said he was the victim of a hoax after it was revealed that his deceased online "girlfriend" may never have existed. 

The Notre Dame football star and his fans believed that Te'o had a girlfriend named Lennay Kekua, who supposedly died of leukemia in September, reports Yahoo! Sports. 

Te'o said he had developed a long-distance relationship a woman he had met online and was "the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke," reports USA Today.

The story of Keuka's death and the passing of Te'o's grandmother, who reportedly died within hours of each other, became central to Te'o's Heisman Trophy campaign and the success of his season with the Fighting Irish.

"I miss 'em, but I know that I'll see them again one day," Te'o told ESPN this autumn.

The hoax came to light after a Deadspin article that alleged the woman never existed. Reporters were not able to find any death records for Keuka or any proof she was a student at Stanford University, as she claimed. 

Photographs identified as Kekua both online and on TV reports belong to an unidentified California woman who is not Lennay Keuka, reports Deadspin.

Te'o has since admitted that he never met Keuka in person but wholly believed she was his girlfriend.

"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," Te'o told USA Today.

"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating."

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said he believes Te'o was the victim of a prank and that the university is standing by their star player.

"I want to stress, as someone who has been engaged in this as anyone the past couple weeks, that nothing I have learned has shaken my faith in Manti Te’o one iota," Swarbrick told Yahoo! Sports.

Notre Dame said it hired an independent investigator to look into the hoax.

 {More from different source}

 Manti Te’o’s story was the most compelling of the college football season.

The All-America linebacker and star of a Notre Dame team enjoying a Cinderella season was playing inspired football on the field and dealing with great mental anguish off it. Two of the most important women in his life, his grandmother and his girlfriend, were gravely ill.

Both women, Annette Santiago, Te’o’s grandmother, and Lennay Kekua, reported to be Teo’s girlfriend, died within hours of each other Sept. 11, 2012.

Now, it appears Te’o’s inspiring story was a hoax. According a report on Deadspin.com, a website that has broken some high-profile stories but not an outlet regarded for journalistic standards, Kekua never existed.

What remains unclear is whether Te’o was a participant in the hoax.

Te’o has denied taking part and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said the fraud was perpetrated against the linebacker.

“Nothing about what I have learned has shaken my faith in Manti Te’o one iota,’’ Swarbrick said Wednesday night.

Notre Dame officials said Te’o and his parents informed the school on Dec. 26 that the linebacker had been the victim of the hoax. According to the school, a person using a fictitious name “apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia.’’

Te’o, according to Swarbrick, alerted school officials after receiving a phone call from a number he believed belonged to his girlfriend, whom he labeled as an “online’’ girlfriend.

What was said — if anything — during the phone call is unknown.

An obituary in the Honolulu Advertiser confirmed Santiago’s death at age 72.

However, no obituary or death notice could be found for Kekua, who reportedly was 22 and suffered from leukemia, which was discovered after she was in a car accident last year.

Te’o released a statement saying, “This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. 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. To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.’’

A story in the South Bend Tribune said the two met after Notre Dame’s 2009 loss at Stanford, where Kekua allegedly was a student. Deadspin said the Palo Alto, Calif., school has no record of a student by that name.

The pictures of Kekua that media outlets have used are, according to the Deadspin report, photos from the Facebook account of a 22-year-old California woman, who was unaware her pictures were being used until she was contacted by the website.

Te’o’s statement Wednesday does raise questions, considering some of his quotes during the season — which clearly give the perception that the relationship was more serious.

Hours after learning of the deaths, Te’o collected 12 tackles as he led the Fighting Irish to a 20-3 win over Michigan State, then said, “My family and my girlfriend’s family have received so much love and support from the Notre Dame family.’’

Te’o was asked about staying in South Bend and not attending his girlfriend’s service while conducting a press conference in early October.

“You know, I really wanted to see her,’’ he said. “But I knew that she made me promise that, ‘Babe, if anything happens to me, you promise that you’ll still stay over there and that you’ll play and that you’ll honor me through the way you play, and know that I would rather have you there.’ ”

Te’o told the Globe’s Amalie Benjamin in November that the hardest part about losing his girlfriend was “every morning I wake up and my girlfriend is not on the phone it reminds that she’s gone . . . I go through it every day.’’

Benjamin said Wednesday that Te’o, a devout Mormon, “seemed very sincere and very emotional and affected by the death of his girlfriend.’’

Benjamin also talked to Te’o’s father, Brian, whom she described as “sincere and genuine.’’

“They could not have been nicer and seemed genuine,’’ said Benjamin. “They answered everything in a very sincere way without hesitation. There was never any indication there was anything fishy about what they said.’’

Attempts by the Globe to reach Brian Te’o were unsuccessful Wednesday night.

Deadspin said the hoax was the brainchild of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who, according to ESPN, was a high school classmate of Te’o’s at Punahou School in Honolulu.Continued...