‘Untold’ Season 2 Takes Fresh Look At Sports Scandal Involving Manti Te’o And “The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist”
deadline.comFootball star Manti Te’o, the object of a notorious “catfishing” incident, is emerging from the stigma of national ridicule.The former Notre Dame linebacker and Heisman Trophy runner-up revisits the scandal that turned him into a punchline in the new season of the Netflix documentary series Untold, executive produced by Chapman and Maclain Way.
Not only does Te’o tell his story, but so does Naya Tuiasosopo as she is now known, the person who ensnared Te’o in the strange tale of the “girlfriend who didn’t exist.”“People in the sports world have been kind of fascinated by this story,” Chapman Way tells Deadline, in what certainly qualifies as an understatement. “Neither Manti Te’o or Naya, the person behind the scandal, has talked about this really in depth before.”The short version of the tale goes like this: Around 2009, Te’o connected online with an attractive young woman, who went by the name Lennay Kekua.
They developed a friendship that blossomed into a long-distance romance while Te’o dedicated himself to playing football at the University of Notre Dame.
They spoke often by phone and Manti tried to see Lennay numerous times, in person or over video, but something always came up preventing Kekua from making it happen.The emotional bond between them became tighter after Kekua was injured in a near fatal auto accident sometime in 2012, and then, while she was being treated for her injuries, doctors diagnosed her with leukemia—or so Te’o was told.
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