Manti Te'o interview on Katie Couric reveals voicemails from dead hoax girlfriend Lennay Kekua voiced by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
The Manti Te'o dead girlfriend hoax has easily taken the award for strangest story of the year and it's only January.
Things likely will only get stranger as the Notre Dame linebacker speaks to Katie Couric in his first on-camera interview on Thursday. News came out on Wednesday through the Daily News that it was Ronaiah Tuiasosopo who disguised his voice over the phone to Te'o, making him think he was a woman while speaking.
The Heisman Trophy finalist "thought it was a female he was talking with," lawyer Milton Grimes acknowledged to the Daily News. "It was Ronaiah as Lennay."
Deadspin has one of the voicemails, which can be heard HERE.
Some of the interview has been previewed already, with Couric asking Te'o why he lied and about how he found out she didn't exist.
"Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12," Te'o said. The Heisman Trophy runner-up said he only learned of the hoax when he received the phone call in December from a woman saying she was Kekua. "Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she's alive, and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?"
The report also details Te'o's phone records, which shows that he has over 1,000 calls from the main number that equaled to over 500 hours in length of time. According to ESPN.com, 110 were more than 60 minutes in length.
Te'o was asked about his girlfriend at the Heisman presentation.
"I think I'll never forget the time when I found out that, you know, my girlfriend passed away and the first person to run to my aid was my defensive coordinator, Coach [Bob] Diaco, and you know, he said something very profound to me," Te'o said. "He said, 'This is where your faith is tested.' Right after that, I ran into the players' lounge and I got on the phone with my parents -- and I opened my eyes and my head coach was sitting right there. And so, you know, there are a hundred-plus people on our team, and the defensive coordinator and our head coach took time to just go get one [of those players]. You know, I think that was the most meaningful to me."
The other voice mails can be heard on Couric's site and it has two messages.
