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Report: Two Months After Ronaiah Tuiasosopo Gave "Lennay Kekua" Fake Leukemia, His Cousin Was Diagnosed With Real Leukemia
Among the (many) confusing things about the ongoing saga of Manti Te'o's fake dead girlfriend, the similarities between the real life of Te'o-deceiver Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and the false narrative he created have especially muddled the facts. Two turning points in the faked narrative: "Lennay Kekua" w...
![In ESPN Interview, Manti Te'o Admits To "Tailoring His Stories," Says He Wasn't Convinced Lennay Kekua Was Fake Until Wednesday [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18by27wccpz3tjpg.jpg)
In ESPN Interview, Manti Te'o Admits To "Tailoring His Stories," Says He Wasn't Convinced Lennay Kekua Was Fake Until Wednesday [UPDATE]
Admitting that he deceived his parents and the press about the nature of his relationship with Lennay Kekua, but denying any involvement in the hoax, Manti Te'o spoke with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap Friday night for more than two hours in an off-camera interview. (Most of what little we know about the int...
Newspaper: "Lennay" Called Manti Te'o In December And Said She'd Faked Her Death To Elude Drug Dealers
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, citing a source "close to the Te'o family," has the particulars of a phone conversation between Manti Te'o and "Lennay Kekua" in December, three months after "Lennay" had supposedly died. ...
Here's A Photo Of Manti Te'o With Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's Sister The Night Before The Notre Dame-USC Game
This photo, provided to us by a friend of the Tuiasosopos, was taken on Nov. 23, 2012—the night before the Notre Dame-USC game. It shows Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's younger sister, known as Pookah, with Manti Te'o. (According to Manti's uncle Alema Te'o, Pookah supposedly posed as Lennay Kekua's cousin.)...
What Did Manti Te'o Say About His Dead Girlfriend After He'd Learned She Wasn't Real?
Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick said that Manti Te'o was at ESPN's college football awards show, on Dec. 6, when he received a phone call alerting him to the hoax. That was the moment, according to the Notre Dame timeline, that Te'o learned Lennay Kekua wasn't dead, and wasn't real. Here are quotes fro...
ESPN Reports Ronaiah Tuiasosopo Confessed To Te'o Hoax In December. Was Te'o Involved? Evidence Varies
ESPN's Shelley Smith is reporting that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the apparent creator of the Lennay Kekua hoax, confessed to duping Manti Te'o, according to an interview with a friend of Tuiasosopo. "He told me Manti was not involved at all, he was the victim," the woman told Smith, in an audio recording ...
"I Know A Liar When I'm Around One.": Manti Te'o's Uncle Comments On Ronaiah Tuiasosopo
Manti Te'o's uncle Alema Te'o went on The Zone Sports Network last night and spoke to radio hosts Scott Garrard and Riley Jensen about the Manti Te'o-Lennay Kekua story that we broke on Wednesday. Alema didn't have much to say about Manti, but he did offer some personal insight into the character o...
<em>Us Weekly</em>: Te'o Hoaxer Ronaiah Tuiasosopo Auditioned For <em>The Voice</em> And Had A "Sob Story" About A Car Accident
And finally we've learned a little bit more about Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man we believe to have posed as Manti Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. What we do know about Tuiasosopo so far? He sings. He's religious. He, like Lennay, supposedly got into a car accident. And we know that he knows Te'o....
Report: Some At Notre Dame Wanted To Announce The Manti Te'o Hoax Last Week
Yahoo's Pat Forde is openly carrying water for the "Manti Te'o is a hapless victim" lobby at this point, but there's something fascinating at the top of his latest report: an assertion that the Notre Dame hoped to go public with the hoax last week, but that Te'o and his agent wanted to hold off....
What Manti Te'o Told <em>Sports Illustrated</em> About Lennay Kekua
SI's Pete Thamel has been making the rounds today, explaining how he came to write the cover story that had the single biggest role in mythologizing the fake narrative of Manti Te'o's girlfriend. Now we've got more details. At SI.com, Thamel has addressed the steps he took to confirm Lennay Kekua's ...
How <em>Sports Illustrated</em>'s Manti Te'o Story Got Published
While reporting his cover feature for Sports Illustrated on Manti Te'o, Pete Thamel found what he called some "small red flags" in the story of Lennay Kekua, the dead girlfriend who never existed. So what did he do?...
What Happened To Manti Te'o's Interview With ESPN?
At his teary press conference last night, when pressed on details that didn't add up, Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick promised to let Manti Te'o tell those parts himself. Te'o, Swarbrick said, would be addressing the media "soon."...
Darnell Dockett Wants To Cheer Up Manti Te'o By Taking Him To The Strip Club
This Manti Te'o business is on everyone's mind, including Darnell Dockett's. The Arizona Cardinals defensive end is sympathetic to Manti's situation, and has some interesting ideas on how to cheer Manti up:...
Here's Everything The Media Screwed Up In Reporting The Story Of Manti Te'o's Fake Dead Girlfriend
In our investigation of Manti Te'o and his nonexistent dead girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, published yesterday, we mentioned the media's role this fall in amplifying the hoax. Here are all the ways they got the story wrong:...
Manti Te'o's Teammates Had Their Doubts About Lennay Kekua
The big question is: What did he know and when did he know it? We may never get a straight answer from Te'o. Nor from his family, who have thrown hissy-fits anytime the media doesn't work as Manti's PR agency. But what about those who spent the most time with Te'o over the last few years. According ...
Cardinals Player Says He Met Manti Te'o's Fake Dead Girlfriend
This is a confusing story; there's no doubt about it. But if there's one thing everyone can agree on—from our original story, to the Notre Dame statement, to Manti Te'o's own statement, it's that Lennay Kekua was a hoax. She didn't exist....
Notre Dame: Manti Te'o Was The Victim Of Mean Internet People
The Notre Dame version of events is that Manti Te'o is still the hero everyone thought he was. He's just not so good at using the internet....
ESPN Reporter On Te'o Story: "Short Of Asking To See A Death Certificate, I'm Not Sure What Most People Would Do Differently"
The other angle to the Manti Te'o drama? The media. More than a dozen news outlets reported about the girlfriend who didn't exist. So, why didn't the likes of CBS News or ESPN or Sports Illustrated find out sooner?...
Man Performs Feat Even More Incredible Than Making A Half-Court Shot For $1,000
No one will ever confuse me with Nate Silver, but I have to think attempting a half-court shot and having the ball firmly wedge itself between the backboard and the rim is much, much further down the list of likely outcomes than "made shot."...
The Philadelphia Eagles Can't Buy A Coach
We've had our laughs about the various coaching firings and hirings in the NFL in the wake of the NFL's Black Monday: Getting rid of Lovie Smith made no sense, Rex Ryan went to the Bahamas and everyone thought maybe he'd been fired, Doug Marrone got hired on the strength of sort of turning around Sy...