Reports that the girlfriend of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, 21, died of leukemia have been proven false—she never even existed.
It was reported Wednesday, that the Twitter image of Lennay Kekua, the woman in question, belonged to an unidentified woman whose Facebook profile had been hacked, according to the sports news site Deadspin. “So we talked to this woman and she said, 'All of these photos are of me. I am not dead. I have not had leukemia. I didn't go to Stanford and I don't really know who Manti Te'o is,' ” said Deadspin writer Jack Dickey, one of the first reporters to break the story. “And then we said, 'Oh wow.' "
Te’o eventually found out about the hoax and reported it to the school on Dec. 26, shortly before their National Championship game against Alabama. He denied reports that he had any involvement in the hoax. “To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating,” he wrote in a statement.
For right now, the school is standing by him. “That the single most trusting human being I've met, will never be able to trust in the same way again in his life. That's an incredible tragedy,” said Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick.
Te’o is expected to be a top selection in next April’s NFL Draft.
Watch Te'o discussing the loss of Lennay here:
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