In an interview that is set to air on Thursday and Friday, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo reportedly briefly revealed to Dr. Phil McGraw that he is gay. Tuiasosopo admitted to being responsible for the entire Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax. He also described himself as romantically involved with Te’o, but it sounds like Ronaiah has confused even himself by creating the Lennay Kekua persona.
“Here we have a young man that fell deeply, romantically in love,’’ McGraw told NBC’s Today, via Pro Football Talk. “I asked him straight up, ‘Was this a romantic relationship with you?’ And he says yes. I said, ‘Are you then therefore gay?’ And he said, ‘When you put it that way, yes.’ And then he caught himself and said, ‘I am confused.’’’
Tuiasosopo also said that Te’o was “absolutely, unequivocally” not involved with the hoax in any way. Dr. Phil said that he spent several hours with Tuiasosopo and his family and that Ronaiah had a number of life experiences that “damaged him in very serious ways.”
In addition, we’re back to the original story about Tuiasosopo providing the voice for Kekua. Last week, a report surfaced that cited a Tuiasosopo cousin who said the voice of Kekua was almost certainly done by Tino Tuiasosopo, one of Ronaiah’s female cousins. Ronaiah told Dr. Phil that he was responsible for the voice on the phone.
We already heard before that Tuiasosopo could have intense feelings for Te’o, and that would make a lot of sense considering how deep he went with the hoax. Whatever the case, it’s pretty obvious that Ronaiah is a disturbed individual.
