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Linebacker red-faced by hoax
Source: AFP |
January 18, 2013, Friday
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MANTI Te'o, a star linebacker at Notre Dame University who will be a top prospect in this year's NFL draft, says he's embarrassed that he fell for a fabricated girlfriend.
Te'o told reporters he'd been inspired by the death from leukemia in September of Lennay Kekua, who, he said, was his girlfriend. "This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online," Te'o said. "To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating."
A Sports Illustrated story in October stated that Kekua died less than 24 hours after the death of Te'o's grandmother who died on September 11. But the website Deadspin.com reported that the girlfriend apparently never existed.
There are no Social Security Administration records confirming that a Lennay Marie Kekua, previously reported to be a 22-year-old Stanford student, actually died.
Te'o told reporters he'd been inspired by the death from leukemia in September of Lennay Kekua, who, he said, was his girlfriend. "This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online," Te'o said. "To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating."
A Sports Illustrated story in October stated that Kekua died less than 24 hours after the death of Te'o's grandmother who died on September 11. But the website Deadspin.com reported that the girlfriend apparently never existed.
There are no Social Security Administration records confirming that a Lennay Marie Kekua, previously reported to be a 22-year-old Stanford student, actually died.
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