UPDATE: 01/16/2013: Manti Teo’s girlfriend Lennay Kekua – HOAX
The headlines have been unavoidable over the past couple hours in the wake of Deadspin’s incredible post detailing the facts, myths, questions, and lies surrounding the relationship of Manti Te’o and girlfriend Lennay Kekua. We’re not going to step on Deadspin’s toes with all the details, because they earned this story, your click, and for that matter a click on one of their ads. They seriously earned it from all of us.
Through Deadspin’s efforts, they were able to ultimately conclude that Lennay Kekua did not exist. In their expose, Deadspin unraveled the story by determining a myriad of parties involved in the deception. Among the individuals highlighted was a woman named Uilani Rae Kekua, whose online presence has mysteriously disappeared in recent days. PlayerWives.com had our own run in with the individual posing as Uilani Rae Kekua after receiving the following emails in rapid fire succession in the late hours of December 6, 2012:
11:02 PM, EST:
Please, on behalf of our family… Take down the page of our sister Lennay Lekua*. We ask that you please respect our privacy as we still mourn the loss of our sister. We trust that you understand. Thank you & God bless! If you have any further concerns or questions please e-mail @ uilanirae@yahoo.com
*Our first sign that this may not be legit came at the misspelling of her own last name. Our eyebrows continued to raise at the email received minutes later:
11:17 PM, EST
Please take this page about Lennay down. Our family has already requested for the media to please respect our privacy and the memory of our Lennay. Please remove this page ASAP, thank you. -Kekua Family
Urgent requests to handle changes have come to us in the past, but rarely increasingly agitated emails within 20 minutes of the prior. Minutes later, we received a third email from her, which was an exact copy and paste version of the first email noted above. Our site requires a contact form to be filled out as well as a simple math problem to verify that you are a human being and not a spambot. The individual posing as Uilani had to enter the system three times, and fill out the form to submit these contact forms. It’s very possible that the heat from Deadspin was getting strong, or the idea that the story of Lennay Kekua was about to get even bigger during the Heisman campaign and the perpetrators behind the hoax got scared.
All emailed responses to uilanirae@yahoo.com went unreturned.
At the time of the emails this post was one of the first results on all search engines for the term “Lennay Kekua,” which was the term this individual searched to arrive at our site. The emails in question came to us from an AT&T wireless device in Los Angeles, though further efforts to verify the emails have come up short, and no further information could be obtained.
More information will become available as this insane story continues to build.
For our frequent readers many of you know we try and introduce you to the wives and girlfriend’s of athletes with as much of a humorous flair as possible. We don’t take ourselves too seriously at this site but sometimes the situation dictates a more serious tone be taken; and when talking about the Manti Te’o’s girlfriend Lennay Kekua and his grandmother, Annette Santiago, the tone is as respectful and serious as we can get.
For those not familiar with Manti Te’o, get familiar with him. Te’o is the stud, and I mean STUD, linebacker for Notre Dame who has vaulted himself into Heisman discussions. The Hawaiian native picked Notre Dame over about thirty other schools with one of the key factors being Charlie Weiss, the head coach at the time. Weiss agreed that Manti could take time off from school and the Fighting Irish program to fulfill a Mormon mission if Manti so chose. With Manti leading the team and Notre Dame currently sniffing around a national title (the first time this has happened in who knows how many years). It’s very rare that a defensive player gets mentioned as a legit Heisman candidate, I can think of Ndamukong Suh, Tyrann Mathieu and Charlie Woodson as three, but Manti is deep in the discussions this year.
What makes Manti’s year even more impressive is the personal turmoil he has had to deal with. On September 11th Manti received the news that his grandmother, Annette Santiago, had passed away. 6 hours later Manti’s girlfriend, Lennay Kekua lost her battle with Leukemia. Yet through all of this, Manti did not miss a practice or a game. Now some might hear that and think that Manti put football ahead of his personal life, but in this case, those people would be wrong.
As Lennay started to lose her battle with Leukemia she asked for two things from Manti. One she wanted white roses when she passed away, and two, Manti could not miss anything football related. The way to honor Lennay’s life would be for Manti to play on. And play on he did, turning in two games that thrust ND into the national championship picture but also Manti into the Heisman race.
And it should go as no surprise to anyone that Lennay had flowers at her funeral; white roses.
As more details of this story are revealed, we will note that the pictures above were found across various social media sites established and linked to either Lennay Kekua, or as memorials to Lennay Kekua.
34 Comments
Lennay is not only beautiful on the outside but reading about what she did and made Manti promise – she appears to be even more beautiful on the inside. She sure sounds like someone who is a “Keeper” and probably would have been for Manti had she still been with us.
May GOD Bless YOU Lenay
You are GONE TOO SOON. What a beautiful couple you and Manti made. May you Rest in Peace, beautiful angel.
How does everyone feel about Lennay now?
This is a hoax. The “girlfriend’s” photos were stolen from another woman’s Facebook account. Research, mass media, research!
What an d-bag Manti Te’o’s is, just read that he faked his girlfriends death, and there is nobody Lennay Kekua.
This story is a HOAX. Post should be deleted and T’eo should be embarrassed by his actions. What a tool.
haha….someone is in for some serious explaining to do. he was in on it, he knew she wasnt real.
shit is about to get real serious.
can you say draft stock plummeting?
WHAT A FRAUD!
Manti should give back all his awards, it’s the only reason he won all of them to begin with because we all know it wasn’t his play on the field.
WHAT A DOUCHEBAG
Faaaaaaaaaaaake. Touchdown Jesus is in need of a touch up.
Manti’s just as real as Joseph Smith!!!
Dude needs to get his head checked,what a douche…he threw his whole career away just to motivate himself & his teammates for 1yr..id be surprised if even gets drafted
This is a tragic story that this women 9manti’s girlfriend is just a hoax, my thoughts are with Teo as he was wrongly hurt and humiliated by the tragic new today
This is awesome any way you slice it
All you ignorant idiots shouldn’t bad mouth Manti. Who is clearly a victim of fraud and a sick joke played out by roniaiah Tuiasosopo. My cousin who was just searching for some kind of normalcy in college, is from a small town in Hawaii were they can be sheltered from the mainlan lifestyle. No excuses here because none are needed. He was vulnerable for being all of the spotlight notre dame has seen in 30 years and Tuiasosopo clearly took advantage of it. He made a dumb mistake. Hell man up to it like he always has. Quit acting like you all walk on water. Don’t judge.
If he was just the victim of a hoax, then how did he meet her after a game in 2009 and vacation with her in Hawaii? He was in on it. This is insane.
Go read the deadspin article, it has a lot more info.
[…] Then there’s the issue of supposed relatives of Lennay trying to hush up the controversy by sending emails to webmasters. Anyway, time will tell. For the rest of the story, you’ll have to read Deadspin‘s […]
Media. The same media that manipulates your eager for drama driven minds. From jump people are taught to never believe what they hear or read. You don’t know him personally yet you are so quick to judge him. My cousin would lay his life down for any of his teammates or even a stranger. His reputation at notre dame would prove that. This man they make him out to be on the news and espn are just journalist trying to make their next big break. You think he needed this story of a fake girlfriend to make his name? He was already established well before that. This guy Tuiasosopo didn’t just have Manti as a victim. 2 more football players at Arizona fell for it too. This guy is a joke. For you to ear one side and instantly decredit his parents who spoke with this girl years ago is insane. Complete bullshit. Kill that noise.
So, if playerwives.com was on to something on December 6, why did it take this long to break the story – did you guys never ask the question or use teh google to find (or confirm the absence) of an obituary?
I couldn’t give two spits about this story!! I just want the real name of the hottie in the pictures if anyone knows. Mahalo!
Your relationship with Manti drives your passion to defend him and that is admirable. I would do the same for someone that I love and care about. But even you would have to agree that there are a lot of inconsistencies here. A lot of claims have been made from various members of the T’eo family (NOT the media)they met at an actual game, she visited Hawaii on several occasions, and that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met. Not once has any member of the family ever recanted their story, refuted its authenticity, or spoke up on any of the wonderful stories written. Manti’s explanation of an internet hoax does not address any of these inconsistencies. i could write volumes on other things that make no sense but it’s all available on the web so I won’t rehash it. I will leave you with this: even though you know him and feel that he is a 100% victim here, there have been many people in the past deceived by spouses, friends, and partners who thought they knew a person inside and out. i am from Oahu myself and grew up in Manoa and for that reason alone i hope Manti is guiltless, but truly no one but Manti and God above really know the truth.
Oh easy – because we’re not very good at this! We had no reason to believe anything suspicious with the existence of Lenny, just thought the emails from uilani were eyebrow raising…
Manti tells me that she gave the best cyber hummer ever.
Time to go on mission for a couple of years.
Here’s hoping Manti had nothing to do with it but the preponderance of evidence suggests, at the very least, exaggeration and poor judgment. He would not be the first young celebrity to be caught up in the fame, attention, and yes, potential financial security that his celebrity status provides. No famous successful athlete past, present, or future is immune from the effects of this landslide of attention and idol worship, Some do a better job than others to minimize the effects, but they are the minority. Most just bask in it and can’t get enough of it. Media does play a big part in this, as benthesamoan says, and they hear, record, and publish every word. Pretty easy to get caught up in the limelight, right?
Whats her number?
I have a friend who got duped the same way by a woman he was introduced to by a friend on the Internet. These people are out to play on your emotions with the promise of being with them.
My friend, Tony, told me the girl was coming to visit Hawaii. Her pictures were beautiful and he was hooked! Unfortunately, she got into a car accident on her way to the airport. Sound familiar?
Many requests were made for money. I told my friend it was a scam, and it was. Poor Manti probably fell for the same scam. he was probably too embarrassed to tell anyone he had never met the illusive Girlfriend. I’m sure he got in much deeper than he ever intended.
Boy… The timing of those emails seems curious, doesn’t it? December 6th? The day Manti has said that “Lenny” called him and told him she wasn’t dead. How about that! Deadspin said that they didn’t get tipped off until 2-3 weeks ago. Around the same time Teo told Kelly and other ND officials. Any of you morons left who haven’t figured this out yet? Try Smiths article about the confession that Tuiasosopo’s have to a friend from his fathers church? That’s at Espn.com
Manti’s just as real as Joseph Smith!!!
Not cool dude when you have a mouth full of water….. Yup it ended up all over the place because of AWESOME that comment is and will always be.
The human heart is a fickle thing, isn’t it? It is conditioned to crave love, but is is often blindly optimistic; capable of performing illogical brain-bypassing feats of numbing stupidity. Most of us have experienced this, especially in our younger years, my peak was in my early 20’s, which is an especially vulnerable time because of the awkward transition from child to adult. Since I am now 50, I didn’t have the benefit or the meeting/dating/communicating via Skype/twitter/facebook/e-mail etc. but the good news is that I couldn’t be fooled or duped in as many ways either. I had my fantasy relationships but they were manifest in my mind, rather than made to be more “real” with a fake picture, or e-mailed love letter. There are so many more ways today to create a virtual person that is practically irresistible.
So what about Manti? In my opinion, he needs to stop back peddling and admit some culpability other than just being the innocent victim, saying he did not play the part in the hoax. By definition, he did. No hoax is exists without a victim. He admits exaggeratiions were made about how he “met” Lennay. He still used her memory and referred to her inspiration two times after he supposedly figured it out. He could have left any Lennay comments out and simply honored his grandmother’s true memory but he chose not to. And again, like I mentioned before, the entire T’eo family seemed to love the adulation and continued to perpetuate the fairy tale. And the most amazing thing? His family, his team, his school, and the media were caught up in T’eo love – no one put the obvious facts together to determine that this girl never existed.
Maybe this a call to action for all of us looking for love to start meeting real people in the flesh and use the Internet for a truly beneficial purpose: background checks and identity vertication.
I think it’s time to talk to Tuiasosopo! Stop analyzing everything Manti says to fit whatever you believe. He made his statement. Tuiasosopo needs to make a statement and stop hiding. He’s the coward. This “catfish” thing happens more often than one would think. Just watch the show on MTV. Manti may have been naive but Tuiasosopo is the bigger problem. He preys on others behind created identities. Why does he feel the need to do that? Hope his family gets him the help he needs.
It s too bad U have to be caught up in all the crap!!