It’s been a decade since former All-American football standout Manti Te’o has spoken publicly about the catfishing scandal that rocked the sports world and spoiled his fairytale career at Notre Dame. Now, he is ready to tell his side of the story, and why there is no bad blood between him and the person behind it all.
Te’o was a star linebacker at Notre Dame and a Heisman trophy nominee — whose golden boy reputation included a love for his faith and family — when it was revealed he had been the target of an elaborate catfishing hoax spearheaded by Ronaiah “Naya” Tuiasosopo.
Te’o and Tuiasosopo both rehash the infamous scandal in “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist” — a two-part Netlfix documentary, released Tuesday, directed by Ryan Duffy and Tony Vainuku that delves into Te’o’s relationship with Tuiasosopo, who went by “Lennay Kekua” online.
Tuiasosopo used photos of high school classmate Diane O’ Meara without her knowledge to create the fake online persona of Kekua. Tuiasosopo, then known as Ronaiah, has since become a transgender woman and goes by the name Naya.
Te’o and Tuiasosopo agreed to be interviewed separately for the documentary because they were “unsatisfied” with how their story was portrayed in the media a decade ago, the doc’s executive producers, brothers Chapman Way and Maclain Way, said in an interview with The Post.
“When we started filming, they hadn’t been in contact since the scandal broke. They hadn’t talked, they hadn’t seen each other,” Chapman said. “And so it was a really interesting way of making this. They haven’t been in contact. They haven’t been in communication.
“But I think kind of what made these interviews so powerful is they were drawing on memories from 10 years ago. Memories that have stayed with them. Very powerful memories. Very powerful emotions. I think both of them are still working through kind of what this whole scandal was and how it affected them individually.”
Neither Te’o nor Tuiasosopo were interviewed or filmed together for the making of “Untold.” Production occurred during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and safety protocols resulted in remote interviews and smaller production crews.
Te’o was in Chicago at the time of the interviews, during his stint with the Bears, who signed him to their practice squad in October 2020. Tuiasosopo’s interviews were conducted in Seattle, where she is based.
In a trailer for the documentary, Te’o, now 31, says his “whole world changed” when the catfishing hoax unfolded.
In 2012, Te’o announced that his girlfriend, “Lennay Kekua,” had died after battling leukemia during his senior football season — only to learn she never existed. Te’o also said he learned that his 72-year-old grandmother, Annette Santiago, had died just six hours before Kekua’s death in September of that year.
“The last thing she said to me was, ‘I love you,’ and that’s it,” Te’o told ESPN in October 2012 about his girlfriend.
At the time, the linebacker said the losses had inspired him to play better as he helped the Fighting Irish reach its first BCS National Championship during his senior year.
In a January 2013 statement, the university said Te’o had been the victim of what appeared to be a hoax by someone using a fictitious name. Notre Dame addressed the matter after Deadspin reported it could find no record of Lennay Kekua existing — and that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was the suspected mastermind behind the fake girlfriend.
Te’o said he met Tuiasosopo in 2009 after a football game in Stanford. The two would speak through phone calls and text messages. He later told ESPN that he had never met Kekua in person, and that her picture was always blocked whenever they spoke over video chat. But his father, Brian Te’o, claimed the two had spent time together in Hawaii.
The executive producers said they were able to track down Tuiasosopo, who they refer to as “Naya,” through Instagram.
“One day we found Naya. Then we reached out and told her a little bit about our show ‘Untold,'” Chapman said. “We got Naya on the phone and she was incredibly raw and open and vulnerable about this whole journey. She’s been going over [it] the last couple of years [during the making of ‘Untold,’] and talking to her, we realized, like, man, there’s probably a really incredible story here that goes beyond the headlines.”
Chapman and Maclain’s two-part documentary provides a deeper look into Tuiasosopo’s motive for her role in the hoax.
“But for us, I think that there’s a lot more added context for Naya’s actions and a lot more meaning behind them,” Maclain said. “And I think that the other exceptional thing is, in talking to both Naya and Manti, there really didn’t seem to be like, and I genuinely believe this, I know this — there’s no like bad blood between these people. But between them two, they each recognize the journey that each other had to go on. And I think that they just accept this as something that did happen, that did have a tremendous impact on both their lives, but obviously they’re willing to talk about it now.
“I think the one thing that was really fascinating was a lot of catfishing shows usually focus on the victim of what’s happened. And I think talking to Naya and trying to find out like what drove her to this, was a really fascinating conversation on her search for identity. And I think that’s something really unique that hasn’t really been explored before.”
Tuiasosopo was very receptive to discussing inner workings of the catfish scheme, and spoke in interviews a couple hours in length.
“She really felt this in everything that had happened during the controversy and after the controversy and we really just kind of started a dialog with her. But I think what had been clear is, neither Manti nor Naya were entirely satisfied or happy with how the story had been covered at the time, and they didn’t really want that to be the period at the end of the sentence.
“And in some ways I think that they viewed our documentary as an avenue for a longform, in-depth interview. I think we interviewed each of them for almost a couple of days each to really give our audience the context of what was happening. And so there’s obviously always a bit of a get-to-know-you period. But ultimately, trust was built and we started.”
In the aftermath of the infamous catfish hoax, Te’o focused on training at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., in preparation for the NFL Draft. The linebacker was drafted in the second round by the Chargers in 2013, and later bounced around the NFL.
Te’o signed a two-year deal with the Saints in 2017, before he was signed to the Bears’ practice squad three years later. That practice squad contract with Chicago expired in January 2021 and he’s currently a free agent.
Te’o has since moved on from the scandal. He married fitness enthusiast Jovi Nicole in 2020. The couple welcomed a daughter last summer.
“We definitely interviewed a lot of people close to Manti and Naya in this story about their recollections and memories,” Maclain said. “And you get a lot of fascinating insights from different characters. And so what happened in the mystery surrounding this story? Our story kind of ends kind of with the catfishing scandal. We don’t go too much into modern day. It’s really about this one specific point in time in history and how it affected these two individuals.”
Subsequent films of Netflix’s “Untold” include “The Rise and Fall of AND1,” premiering Aug. 23; “Operation Flagrant Foul” about disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy, premiering Aug. 30; and “Race of the Century” about the 1983 America’s Cup yacht race, premiering on Sept. 6.
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