The story of "The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist"

Brut America

Manti Te'o was a star football player who thought his girlfriend had died … and then he found out she never existed.   This is the incredible story of "The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist."

Transcript

00:00He was the star player whose heartbreaking loss of his girlfriend just before a big game made national headlines

00:06But now it turns out his relationship was an elaborate hoax

00:10This girl who I committed myself to died on September 12th. Now I get a phone call on December 6th

00:17Saying that she's alive

00:19I'm so happy that I had a chance to honor my my grandma and my family and my girlfriend

00:31Manti Teo got catfished

00:34It happens

00:39My whole world changed and I'm questioning everything

00:49I

00:56Created this fictional character Lenny. I totally felt fear

01:00I didn't have courage to just be like this is who I am. He created this identity

01:06That was not me. It was this Lenny Kakua with my face on it

01:20She

01:30Got hit by a drunk driver and the car went off the highway and she's on life support

01:35She's not doing good like the families. They're all going to the hospital right now

01:50I

01:54Just found my grandma passed away and you take you know

01:59The love of my life. I think she said to me was I love you

02:09I'm in there with me, you know, so I mean I couldn't do without them

02:14I couldn't do without the support of my family and my girlfriend's family

02:20I

02:35This was a very sophisticated hoax

02:38Perpetrated for reasons we can't understand at this point. I'm at the Heisman ceremony

02:43I don't know what to think and I can't tell anybody what's going on

02:50I

02:55Never say it affected his play, but you should definitely see something was up

02:59We just thought what sick joke is someone trying to put on that's my uncle. You merely said I think you're getting catfish

03:05I

03:18Was afraid this was going to affect my NFL future

03:20I don't think he had any concept of how much the video will build you up and then tear you down

03:26I didn't expect it to blow up so quickly. This is about to hit the fan. That's when everything went chaotic

03:35It

03:37Seems odd to me that he would tell this story about his girlfriend so often but never mentioned that that he had never actually met her

03:49The single most trusting human being I've ever met will never be able to trust in the same way again in his life

03:56That's an incredible tragedy

03:59The

04:04San Diego Chargers probably select man tied tail linebacker

04:28You

04:34And you have to think about your profile your accounts and your photos that are being exposed

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