Manti Te’o (Photo Credit: Getty Images, By: Jonathan Daniel)
(CBS) – According to a report from ESPN’s Shelley Smith, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo admitted to a friend in December that he was, in fact, the man posing online as Manti Te’o's girlfriend.
The friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Tuiasosopo called her crying in early December and admitted to everything. He also said Te’o played no part in the hoax.
“He (Ronaiah) told me that Manti was not involved at all, he was a victim. … The girlfriend was a lie, the accident was a lie, the leukemia was a lie,” said the woman. “He was crying, he was literally crying, he’s like ‘I know, I know what I have to do.’
“It’s not only Manti, but he was telling me that it’s a lot of other people they had done this to.”
For the full report, please click here.
The story that Te’o's girlfriend, Lennay Marie Kekua, had died of leukemia — a loss he said inspired him to help lead the Fighting Irish to the BCS championship game — was revealed on Wednesday as a hoax.
The university said it was perpetrated against the linebacker.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Te’o told coaches on Dec. 26 that he had received a call while at an awards ceremony from the phone number of his late girlfriend, Lennay Kekua.
By Te’o's own account, she was an “online” girlfriend.
Deadspin first reported that there was no record of Lennay Marie Kekua dying with the Social Security Administration, that a record search produced no obituary or funeral announcement. She supposedly attended Stanford but there is no mention of her death in the Stanford student newspaper.
