Manti Te’o in “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist.” Netflix
It’s been practically a decade since Manti Te’o, a former Heisman Trophy candidate and star linebacker for Notre Dame, grew to become the middle of a media firestorm when it was revealed that his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua — who had purportedly died of leukemia — didn't actually exist.
A Deadspin article broke the information: Kekua, who Te’o had been speaking with frequently on-line, was truly the social media creation of Naya Tuiasosopo, who has since come out as a trans lady.
Te’o hasn’t talked to Tuiasosopo within the years because the catfishing hoax. However when the prospect to inform his story by a Netflix documentary emerged, the NFL free agent was adamant that Tuiasosopo be included within the story, USA At present reported.
So the manager producers of “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist” tracked Tuiasosopo down by way of Instagram and informed her concerning the challenge.
“We received Naya on the cellphone and she or he was extremely uncooked and open and weak about this complete journey,” Chapman Manner, one of many government producers, informed The New York Submit. “Speaking to her, we realized, like, man, there’s in all probability a very unimaginable story right here that goes past the headlines.”
Though they have been interviewed individually for the documentary, each Te’o and Tuiasosopo delved into their recollections to inform their sides of a headlining-grabbing story that swept the nation — a portrayal that left each “unhappy,” per The New York Submit.
“What made these interviews so highly effective is that they have been drawing on recollections from 10 years in the past. Recollections which have stayed with them,” Manner informed The New York Submit. “Very highly effective recollections. Very highly effective feelings. I feel each of them are nonetheless working by type of what this complete scandal was and the way it affected them individually.”
Manner added that he believes one of many best strengths of the documentary — which hit Netflix in August and remains to be listed within the prime 10 trending films on the platform — is the way it offers house for Tuiasosopo to share her perspective.
“A number of catfishing reveals often concentrate on the sufferer of what’s occurred,” Manner informed The New York Submit. “And I feel speaking to Naya and looking for out like what drove her to this, was a very fascinating dialog on her seek for identification. And I feel that’s one thing actually distinctive that hasn’t actually been explored earlier than.”
Te’o stated watching the documentary and listening to from Tuiasosopo did convey up “a number of feelings,” however that he was capable of face up to it as a result of his option to forgive Tuiasosopo, in line with USA At present.
“For the primary three years, my life was extraordinarily troublesome, and I used to be determined to seek out peace,” he informed USA At present. “The one factor that I might consider throughout that point was forgiveness, was to let it go. As soon as I did, I felt like I then regained the facility over my life and that peace over my life.”
Close to the tip of “Untold,” Te’o reveals how he suffered from anxiousness after getting catfished, and the way he finally went to remedy to seek out therapeutic, the Deseret Information reported. It was in remedy that he realized to forgive not solely Tuiasosopo, however himself.
“I’ll take all of the jokes, I’ll take all of the memes, so I could be an inspiration to the one who wants me to be,” he stated.
The place is Manti Te’o’s catfisher now?
For the reason that catfishing hoax, Tuiasosopo has stored a low profile. “Untold” mentions how she moved to American Samoa and related with the Fa’afafine neighborhood — “a bunch of indigenous Samoans who determine as nonbinary or by a 3rd gender,” Bustle reported.
In “Untold,” Tuiasosopo describes the incident with Te’o as being a formative time in her life.
“I nonetheless really feel horrible, and generally I want that the whole lot had been undone,” she stated, per the Deseret Information. “However then additionally one other a part of me was like, I realized a lot about who I'm in the present day and who I wish to turn out to be due to the teachings I realized by the lifetime of Lennay.”
Tuiasosopo now resides and works in Seattle, Washington, in line with Bustle.