Manti Te’o was a top student in high school, well-liked by his peers, and on track to receive a full football scholarship to the University of Notre Dame. He was a pillar of his community in his native Hawaii, engaged in his church, and gregarious.
Then, a tragedy happened. First his girlfriend died, then his grandma. Both on the same day. But his girlfriend wasn’t really killed. The media learned that his fiancée didn’t even exist.
The person behind the scam, Ronaiah “Naya” Tuiasosopo, was caught in the middle and it was always a catfish.
A new two-part documentary, “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist,” by Ryan Duffy and Tony Vainuku, about Te’o, Tuiasosopo, and the intricate 2013 deception, premiered on Netflix on Tuesday.
The tale of Manti Te’o and his fictitious lover is well-known, but Tuiasosopo, who invented the character as a means of overcoming her own gender dysphoria, is a lesser-known figure. Since then, Tuiasosopo has acknowledged that she is transsexual.
Though viewers might immediately know Te’o, the documentary actually begins with Tuiasosopo. She plays a key role in both of the episodes, taking viewers along on her journey of gender identity and self-discovery, which was partly influenced by her experiences catfishing Te’o.
As the cornerstone of a strong defensive unit that helped the Fighting Irish advance to the BCS national title game in 2012, Te’o was a Heisman finalist and Butkus Award winner.
He talked about the loss of his girlfriend, Stanford student Lennay Kekua, who had fallen away from leukemia around the time Te’o’s grandmother had died, in interviews at the time.
He oddly claimed that he had only chatted with Kekua digitally and had never met her in person. She turned out to be a complete fabrication.
The identity for Kekua was established by Ronaiah “Naya” Tuiasosopo, who also communicated with Manti Te’o. Following the conclusion of Notre Dame’s season, it was revealed that Manti Te’o was the target of an elaborate catfishing plot and Kekau was not real.
