Documentary film stars and the makers of MTV’s reality show Catfish are convinced that Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o was indeed the victim of a hoax.

News surfaced this week that Te’o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, who supposedly died in September from leukemia, was actually not a real girl at all. Te’o released a statement explaining that he had an online relationship and was the victim of a hoax.

Notre Dame Football Star Manti Te’o Claims He Was Part of a Hoax

“From what I gathered, and from some contact that has been made with me with people who have been involved in this story directly, I get the impression that this is a much larger scheme than he would have thought,” Nev Schulman, the creator of Catfish, said. “It doesn’t seem to me that he is in on it, although, of course, that is yet to be seen. I think, even though it seems hard to believe and he is a high-profile football player, he is just as vulnerable and susceptible to being Catfished as anyone.”

“It appears as though someone created Lennay’s profile on Twitter, at the very least, and was engaged in relationships with people apart from Manti,” Schulman continued.

“That’s definitely something that goes with what we’ve seen. They’re generally not one-off relationships with people who engage in Catfishing,” Max Joseph, Schulman’s co-creator, further explained. “People enjoy talking to more than one person, for various different reasons. When we meet them, they generally confess to doing it for a number of years and having spoken to anywhere from one to hundreds of people.”

UsWeekly has reported that the hoax was allegedly conceived by someone named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. Rumors have spread that he once auditioned for NBC’s The Voice. Details are still emerging.

[image: UsMagazine]