# Manti Te'o's Fake, Dead Girlfriend **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 16, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424 "2013-01-16T22:06:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/201 "2013-01-18T21:32:03Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > They needed to come clean immediately, that is my opinion. I don’t buy the argument that Te’o and/or Notre Dame “needed” to do _anything_. The whole debacle is embarrassing for him personally, but it doesn’t really reflect on the University one way or the other, and I don’t see where his fake girlfriend is even their concern at all. After all, who’s been hurt? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/202 "2013-01-18T21:47:16Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > I don’t buy the argument that Te’o and/or Notre Dame “needed” to do _anything_. People had their emotions manipulated, and fans organized support campaigns and donated money to charity in the fake dead girl’s name. Yeah, giving to charity is good anyway, but they did have some obligation to tell the truth about a story they had brought to the country’s attention. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/203 "2013-01-18T21:51:52Z")
Manti’s rebound was a[pretty attractive woman](http://www.tmz.com/photos/2013/01/18/manti-teo-alexandra-del-pilar-together-photos/#!/images/2013/01/18/manti-teo-alexandra-del-pilar-01-jpg), which should put to rest the “beard” theory. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/204 "2013-01-18T22:17:24Z")
I meant to bow out, but this is just too much. Explanation as to why fake girlfriend came back to life to in real life tell Te’o why she had to fake her (fake) death to avoid fake drug dealers…Got it? [Article here](http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/breaking/20130118_EXCLUSIVE_Woman_tried_new_hoax_in_December_call_to_Teo.html?id=187505701): > [@](#): > > Manti Te’o has told family and friends that the woman who was the voice of his fictitious girlfriend “Lennay Kekua” called him in December and **said she had to fake her own death months earlier to elude drug dealers** , the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has learned. > > The woman, who has yet to be identified, tried to re-engage a relationship with Te‘o months after she supposedly had died of leukemia in early September, the Notre Dame All-American linebacker has told the people close to him. The account was shared with the Star-Advertiser by a source close to the Te‘o family. > > According to the account, Te’o asked the woman to transmit a photo to him with a date stamp, which she did, but this did not allay his suspicions and he later told his family and Notre Dame officials about being scammed. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/205 "2013-01-18T22:20:06Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > No, they said he received a call from the cell phone of his supposedly dead girlfriend on Dec. 6. The call didn’t say, “it was all a hoax!” The caller was actually pretending to be the dead girlfriend again. I read elsewhere that Teo thought at first maybe her sister was playing a really bad joke. After a week or 10 days he decided he had, indeed, been played. He had not difinitively drawn that conclusion by Dec. 8, though. I really don’t understand what happened with the December 6 phone call. What did the caller say on the call? “Surprise! I’m not dead! Got ya! I have a totally reasonable explanation for letting you think I was dead for the past three months.” It seems like that no matter what was said on the phone call, that it shouldn’t take 10 days to figure out that he had been played. > [@Wheelz](#): > > I don’t buy the argument that Te’o and/or Notre Dame “needed” to do _anything_. > > The whole debacle is embarrassing for him personally, but it doesn’t really reflect on the University one way or the other, and I don’t see where his fake girlfriend is even their concern at all. After all, who’s been hurt? It’s true, they don’t really need to say anything, other than to get people to stop asking questions and bothering them about it. It’s a big story with a lot of questions, so it’s not going to be left alone until they explain what happened. But I do keep imagining what it would be like if Te’o had won the Heisman. People would think that the tragic story had played a part, and there would be Aggies going crazy about how Johnny Football had been cheated out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/206 "2013-01-18T22:23:14Z")
I guess that was a test to see if he was the stupidest man on Earth. At least this time he picked the correct answer. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/207 "2013-01-18T22:33:57Z")
If true…huge if, then yea, I’m extremely careful who I’m leaking/telling these facts, too. He’s circling the wagons back in Hawai’i it appears. Even on their face, and even if you’re completely innocent, the honest truth could screw you by telling the wrong journalist. I imagine much negotiation as to how his version of the story gets released. Also, you want to hurry and quell the madness, but you also don’t want the perp to have the last word. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/208 "2013-01-18T22:39:09Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > I meant to bow out, but this is just too much. Explanation as to why fake girlfriend came back to life to in real life tell Te’o why she had to fake her (fake) death to avoid fake drug dealers…Got it? > > [Article here](http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/breaking/20130118_EXCLUSIVE_Woman_tried_new_hoax_in_December_call_to_Teo.html?id=187505701): You got this in while I was writing my last post, and all I can say is wow, that is crazy. And I can’t wait for the movie version of this story. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/209 "2013-01-18T22:49:06Z")
“When your girlfriend refuses to meet with you face-to-face, spends months faking her own death by cancer she got from a car crash to avoid drug dealers, doesn’t tell you she’s faking her own death until after the fact and she may not exist at all but actually be your friend pulling an extremely elaborate prank on you…gentlemen, that’s a deal breaker” ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/210 "2013-01-18T22:52:48Z")
Seriously. I would come completely clean and then make some jokes about how preposterous it is and I actually fell for it! That’s what I’d do if I was him. Turn it into a black comedy (or accept that it is). ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/211 "2013-01-18T22:54:01Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > “When your girlfriend refuses to meet with you face-to-face, spends months faking her own death by cancer she got from a car crash to avoid drug dealers, doesn’t tell you she’s faking her own death until after the fact and she may not exist at all but actually be your friend pulling an extremely elaborate prank on you…gentlemen, that’s a deal breaker” Nice 30 Rock reference. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/212 "2013-01-18T22:55:24Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > Seriously. I would come completely clean and then make some jokes about how preposterous it is and I actually fell for it! That’s what I’d do if I was him. Turn it into a black comedy (or accept that it is). “Ladies and Gentlemen of the press. I am such a moron. There I said it. I was duped, I played along because you know…anyway, nobody got hurt. I am now very happy with my current girlfriend Sue Storm.” ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/213 "2013-01-18T23:59:18Z")
He really needs to release a sex tape with his new girlfriend. That should make everyone happy 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/214 "2013-01-19T00:06:10Z")
yea. Open by walking up to the podium with new girlfriend, glance slightly below eye level at her, turn to podium, “they’re real, and they’re spectacular.” Or, open with, “looks like i picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue” ---
**Author:** ![Ennui](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ennui/32/3396_2.png) [@Ennui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ennui)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/215 "2013-01-19T01:24:00Z")
He should do his press conference as a homage to Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech with an empty chair on stage with him. It would show a sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/216 "2013-01-19T01:58:35Z")
> [@Ennui](#): > > He should do his press conference as a homage to Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech with an empty chair on stage with him. > > It would show a sense of humor. I like your style. Political, but very funny. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/217 "2013-01-19T02:20:46Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > He’s the person who asked the real woman whose pics were used for Lennay photos (taken from her Facebook account) to pose with a sign to “legitimize” the Lennay Twitter account. He was high school friends with her and she thought it was odd but didn’t ask questions. He was also apparently at least friends with Manti, and was in a car accident around the time Lennay was. > > Reading more, some people are alleging that he had created the Lennay persona for fake relationships before this time - so was he duping Manti, who he actually knew (it seems), or just using it as a cover? I know nothing about sports and reading this thread is kinda my only exposure to this bit of drama, but my immediate thought when reading what happened was that Ronaiah has a man crush on Manti and was actually ‘Lennay’ in all the internet convos so that he could get the affection and love he wants so desperately from Manti. I mean, at this point, it wouldn’t seem that odd right? XD ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/218 "2013-01-19T04:03:54Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > I know nothing about sports and reading this thread is kinda my only exposure to this bit of drama, but my immediate thought when reading what happened was that Ronaiah has a man crush on Manti and was actually ‘Lennay’ in all the internet convos so that he could get the affection and love he wants so desperately from Manti. I mean, at this point, it wouldn’t seem that odd right? XD One or more episodes of _Catfish_ the TV show have gone that way. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/219 "2013-01-19T06:11:31Z")
After listening to a recap of Jeremy Schapp’s interview with Te’o today, I believe that he was simply duped and had to play up the story. Until about 48 hours ago (from now) he still wasn’t 100% certain Lennay didn’t exist. He was psychologically attached to this fictional woman. Either that, or he is a pathological liar. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/220 "2013-01-19T08:40:23Z")
Other side of the story with plausible answers is out…close down the thread…no more fun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424.md?page=12)