Weeks after controversy has surrounded him regarding a hoax, college football star Manti Te'o admitted that he lied--briefly--regarding his fake online girlfriend after he found out that she didn't exist.
Te'o told Katie Couric in a special interview that will air Thursday that he had initially believed that the person he thought to be his online girlfriend Lennay Kekua had died of cancer in September.
However, out of the blue, he received a call on Dec. 6 from a female that claimed that she was said deceased girlfriend. Despite finding that out, he publicly mentioned his girlfriend two days later.
"You stuck to the script. And you knew that something was amiss, Manti," Couric said.
Te'o responded, "Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12."
A standout college linebacker, Te'o caught national attention in September when he led Notre Dame to a big win days after his grandmother died and "Lennay" was said to have passed away as well.
However, since the hoax was revealed, Te'o has been facing accusations that he was part of a scam that he would use for his own gain, and possibly to influence the Heisman Trophy voting, which he finished as a runner-up under.
His father, Brian Te'o, denied those accusations to Couric.
"People can speculate about what they think he is," a tearful Brian Te'o told Couric. "I've known him 21 years of his life. And he's not a liar. He's a kid."
However, it seems that phone records back Te'o's story that he believed "Lennay" to be real.
ESPN reported Wednesday that a source close to the football star gave them documents--which were apparently Te'o's phone records--dating from May 11 to Sept. 12 that show Te'o made and received more than 1,000 calls and more than 500 hours in call time to an area code believed to be where "Lennay" was living at.
The woman in the photos portrayed as Kekua, whose real name is Diane O'Meara, told NBC's "Today" show that another man, her ex-high school classmate Ronaiah Tuiasosopo--the man behind the hoax-- used pictures of her without her permission by stealing them from her Facebook page.
O'Meara, 23, who works as a marketing executive in Los Angeles, says that she has never met or had any contact with Te'o. Tuiasosopo has since confessed and offered her an apology, but she appeared less than moved.
"I don't think there's anything he could say to me that would fix this," said O'Meara.
Regarding Te'o, O'Meara, who was unsure if he was involved or not in the scam, said, "If Manti is truly innocent, I empathize with him."
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