NEW YORK (AP) — The person Manti Te'o says was pretending to be his online girlfriend told the Notre Dame linebacker "I love
you" in voicemails that were played during his interview with Katie Couric.
Taped earlier this week and broadcast
Thursday, the hour-long talk show featured three voicemails that Te'o
claims were left
for him last year. Te'o said they were from the person he believed
to be Lennay Kekua, a woman he had fallen for online but
never met face-to-face.
After the first message was played, Te'o said: "It sounds like a girl, doesn't it?"
"It does," Couric responded.
The interview was the All-American's first on camera since his tale of inspired play after the deaths of his grandmother and
girlfriend on the same day in September unraveled as a bizarre hoax in an expose by Deadspin.com on Jan. 16.
Te'o's parents appeared with him for part of the interview and backed up his claim that he wasn't involved in the fabrication,
saying they, too, had spoken on the phone with a person they believed to be Kekua.
Couric addressed speculation that the tale was concocted by Te'o as a way to cover up his sexual orientation. Asked if he
were gay, Te'o said "no" with a laugh. "Far from it. Faaaar from that."
He also said he was "scared" and "didn't know what to do" after receiving a call on Dec. 6 — two days before the Heisman Trophy
presentation — from a person who claimed to be his "dead" girlfriend.
The first voicemail, he said, was from what was supposed to be Kekua's first day of chemotherapy for leukemia.
"Hi, I am just letting you know I got here and I'm getting ready for my first session and, um, just want to call you to keep
you posted. I miss you. I love you. Bye," the person said.
In the second voicemail, the person was apparently upset by someone else answering Te'o's phone.
The third voicemail was left on Sept. 11, Te'o says, the day he believed Kekua was released from the hospital and the day
before she "died."
"Hey babe, I'm just calling to say goodnight," the person on the voicemail said. "I love you. I know that you're probably
doing homework or you're with the boys. ... But I just wanted to say I love you and goodnight and I'll be ok tonight. I'll
do my best. Um, yeah, so get your rest and I'll talk to you tomorrow. I love you so much, hon. Sweet dreams."
Couric suggested he person who left those messages might have been Ronaiah Tuisasosopo, a 22-year-old man from California,
who Te'o said has apologized to him for pulling the hoax.
"Do you think that could have been a man on the other end of the phone?" she asked.
"Well, it didn't sound like a man," Te'o said. "It sounded like a woman. If he somehow made that voice, that's incredible.
That's an incredible talent to do that. Especially every single day."
Tuiasosopo has not spoken publicly since
news of the hoax broke. The Associated Press has learned that a home in
California
where Te'o sent flowers to the Kekua family was once a residence
of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and has been in his family for decades.
Also on Thursday, the woman whose pictures were used in fake online accounts for Kekua said Tuiasosopo confessed to her in
a 45-minute phone conversation as the scheme unraveled.
Diane O'Meara spoke with The Associated Press in a telephone interview with her attorneys in the room. She said Tuiasosopo
told her he'd been "stalking" her Facebook profile for five years and taking photos.
Attorney Jim Artiano said they were evaluating the situation and had not decided on whether to take any legal action.
The 23-year-old O'Meara, of Long Beach,
Calif., said she knew Tuiasosopo from high school and he contacted her
through Facebook
on Dec. 16. She said that, over the next three weeks, Tuiasosopo
got in touch with her several times, attempting to get more
photos and video of O'Meara. She said he made up a story about
wanting them to help cheer up a cousin who was injured in a
car crash.
O'Meara learned her identity had been stolen on Jan. 13 when she was contacted by Deadspin.com.
"When I contacted Ronaiah I got a very bizarre vibe from him, he became very nervous, he wasn't asking the questions I expected.
He was asking 'Who contacted you? What did they say?'" O'Meara said.
Later that evening, Tuiasosopo called to confess, O'Meara said. She asked her why he didn't just stop the hoax.
"He told me he wanted to end the relationship," O'Meara said. "He said he wanted to stop the relationship between Lennay and
Manti, but Manti didn't want Lennay to break up with him ... He said he tried to stop the game many times."
When news of the hoax broke a few days later, O'Meara said she received a text from Tuiasosopo asking her to call him as soon
as possible. O'Meara said she didn't respond.