Manti Te’o sat down with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap for his first interview since it was revealed on Wednesday that his supposed girlfriend who allegedly died of leukemia in September was a hoax.
The interview was not shown by ESPN, but Schaap reported on SportsCenter Friday evening that Te’o told him he was not convinced that Lennay Kekua was not real until Wednesday.
Schaap says Te’o told him that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man believed to have been behind the Kekua fabrication the entire time, called and Twitter messaged him on Wednesday to apologize for running the whole scam.
Schaap says Te’o told him that he lied to his father, Brian, about his relationship with Kekua, which explains why some of the stories printed about Te’o’s relationship with Kekua that were sourced by Brian contained false information.
According to Schaap, Te’o, while in Hawaii over Christmas break, told his parents he was going out to meet Kekua on New Year’s in 2012. Kekua never showed but, Te’o, not wanting to get into a long discussion with his parents about it, told them he saw her.
Te’o denied having a role in the scam.
