Manti Te’o Releases Statement About Girlfriend Hoax — Claims He Was A Victim
Flickr/West Point Public Affairs
This Manti Te’o story is getting weirder and weirder. Manti has been accused of making up a fake girlfriend and playing in the wake of her fictitious death.
Notre Dame has released a statement saying that it learned about this situation several weeks ago and believe Manti is a victim. Now, Manti has also released a statement:
“This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother’s death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life. I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been. In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was. Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I’m looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.”
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