The Dark Truth Behind the Manti Te’o Catfishing Scandal

If you were a a college football fan in 2012, there’s no doubt you’ve heard of the Manti Te’o catfishing scandal. The Hawaiian linebacker was a one of the sports best players that season, winning the Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year Lott Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Butkus Award, the Lombardi Award, the Walter Camp Award, finishing second for the coveted Heisman Trophy, and leading the storied Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team to the National Championship Game.

Beyond his on-field success, Te’o became a national human interest story thanks to the deaths of both his grandmother and his beloved girlfriend Lennay Kekua at the start of the season. The story of Kekua’s tragic passing from leukemia in particular spurred interest, with  Te’o giving numerous interviews on the subject of how he and Kekua had met at a game, and dedicating his accomplishments to her memory. It was one of the sweetest stories in sports history. The only problem? Lennay Kekua never existed.

As documented in the 2022 Netflix documentary Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist, Lennay Kekua was a creation of Ronaiah “Naya” Tuiasosopo, a fellow Hawaiian who identified as male and had been catfishing Te’o using internet and phone communication, as well as photos of an unrelated woman named Diane O’Meara, a former high school classmate of Tuiasosopo. According to Te’o, he began to suspect the relationship had been a hoax when the “deceased” Kekua had contacted him him late 2012 claiming to still be alive.

The truth about the hoax came to light in January of 2013 – just weeks after Notre Dame lost the National Championship Game to Alabama in a game where Te’o had played well below his standard – thanks to the reporting of Deadspin reporters Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey. Publicly, Te’o and Notre Dame released a statement that read in part:

“Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia.”

Despite the statement, public opinion was initially against Te’o, with many believing he was “in” on the scam as a publicity stunt due to the coverage it garnered, as well as perceived inconsistencies in his story. Te’o attempted to give his side of the story, releasing audio of the voicemails he’d been fooled by as well as revealing that he had lied about meeting Kekua in person not to further any scam, but rather because he was worried his parents would disapprove of his involvement in an “online only” relationship.

Despite Te’o’s attempts to take control of the narrative, and Tuiasosopo’s televised confession to the hoax and admissio to falling in love with Te’o, he catfishing story led to questions about his motivations – and even intelligence by some. In-turn his projected mid-first round draft status tumbled, and Te’o was eventually picked in the second round by the San Diego Chargers, which cost him millions of dollars in salary. Te’o went on to spend 8 years in the NFL, having a solid if unspectacular career that paled in comparison to his college exploits.

By the time Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist was released in 2022, Te’o had seemingly achieved peace with that had happened to him, saying that he forgave Tuiasosopo – who had by then transitioned to female – for the catfishing that had arguably sabotaged his career.