Speaking publicly for the first time in nearly a decade about the catfishing scandal she perpetrated on Manti Te’o, the former Ronaiah Tuiasosopo explained the details of how she was able to pull off the elaborate hoax.
Tuiasosopo, who’s now a transgender woman going by Naya, used photos of Diane O’Meara to create Lennay Kekua, the online girlfriend of Te’o’s who was said to have died during the 2012 Notre Dame football season. Though most of the photos she used were taken from O’Meara’s social media without her knowledge, one of them — a picture of O’Meara holding up a combination of letters and numbers — was taken at her request. Tuiasosopo told O’Meara, a high school classmate, that the photo was for a cousin who got in a car accident.
“As horrible as it felt to do that, it was kind of a relief knowing that I was able to validate, still, a girl that wasn’t even real,” Tuiasosopo said in the Netflix documentary “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist.”
Tuiasosopo told Dr. Phil in an interview at the time that she was in love with Te’o.
“As twisted and confusing as it may be, I cared for this person,” she said in the interview, which is played in the documentary. “I did all that I can to help this person become a better person. It’s very painful to even talk about but the truth of it is that happened. I grew feelings. I grew emotions that sooner or later, I couldn’t control anymore.”
Tuiasosopo did not have any help, even in playing different voices on the phone with Te’o.
The former NFL linebacker admitted in the documentary that the fallout from the scandal — which resulted in a medꦛia frenzy heading into the 2013 draft — caused him anxiety and nervousness for his first three seasons with the Chargers.
“He changed so much,” said Te’o’s mom, Ottilia. “He withdrew himself.”
After Te’o fell out of the first round, he says he walked out to the beach near his family’s home in Hawaii and “just started bawling.” He was taken the next day by the then-San Diego Chargers 38th overall, but when he stepped onto the field for his first preseason game, became numb.
“Every day was just trying to figure out how to get rid of this anxiety,” Te’o said. “How to get rid of this numbness, this tingling.”
Eventually, Te’o spoke to a therapist which helped. He ends the documentary by saying he forgives Tuiasosopo.
“I hope and pray that him and his family’s cool,” Te’o said. “Cause that’s all that I can wish for him.”
