Ronaiah Tuiasosopo spoke with Dr. Phil McGraw for his first interview since being exposed as the man behind the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax. One half of Tuiasosopo’s interview aired on “Dr. Phil” Thursday, and the other half will air Friday. Dr. Phil’s show left a big cliffhanger Thursday when they teased a preview of Tuiasosopo attempting to reenact the voice of “Lennay Kekua,” which is the fake identity he created to dupe the former Notre Dame linebacker.
Last week, Tuiasosopo’s attorney reportedly told the New York Daily News that his client was responsible for the female voice of Kekua. A relative disagreed, reportedly telling the New York Post that one of Tuiasosopo’s female cousins voiced the Kekua character. The relative believes that Ronaiah was just trying to cover for his cousin to accept all responsibility for the hoax.
Based on the clips from Dr. Phil’s program, it sure seems like Tuiasosopo did not provide the Kekua voice.
When pressed to give a sample of Kekua’s voice on the spot, Tuiasosopo was hesitant:
Tuiasosopo told Dr. Phil that he wanted to be in private to recreate the voice. He eventually agreed to attempt to recreate voicemails Kekua left for Te’o:
Voice analysts from the FBI say there is an extremely low probability that Tuiasosopo is the person who provided the voice for Kekua.
You can listen to three voicemails “Kekua” supposedly left for Te’o here.
UPDATE: Tuiasosopo’s voice seems to match up with Kekua’s.
Video via Sports Grid
