Aaron Hernandez's ex-fiancée grateful for 'unreal amount of support' following revelations in Netflix series
NFL star and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez's former fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, has opened up about the popular Netflix documentary on the late football player. The film titled 'Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez' detailed Hernandez's rise to fame and his near-immediate downfall.
Hernandez, the youngest National Football League player in 2010, was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2015 after he shot and killed Odin Lloyd, the boyfriend of his fiancée’s sister. Two years later, on April 19, 2017, Hernandez was found dead in his prison cell at the age of 27. He was serving a life sentence when he took his life by hanging himself.
The Netflix film showed how Hernandez and Jenkins met while studying at the Bristol Central High School in Connecticut. The pair's relationship rekindled after a short break during Hernandez's college years, and the pair became serious after the player was drafted by the New England Patriots. The couple had a daughter named Avielle in 2012, just months before Hernandez was arrested for Lloyd's murder.
Jenkins continued to stand by Hernandez following his arrest. The film showed the devastating impact the player's conviction had on her, and how her support of the Hernandez resulted in fissures in her relationship with her sister.
Days after the release of the documentary, Jenkins took to Instagram to thank people for supporting her. Jenkins wrote, "I wanted to let all of you sweet sweet souls know I have tried to read every message sent on IG and through email (positive and negative). The amount of support and positive energy is again unreal! I’m sure you will all understand how imperative it is to take some time away from social media." She concluded her post with the hashtag "#stayhumble."
Jenkins, on the day of the docu-series' release on January 15, had shared an inspirational quote on Instagram, reading, "Never forget how far you’ve come. Everything you have gotten through. All the times you have pushed on even when you felt you couldn’t. All the mornings you got out of bed no matter how hard it was. All the times you wanted to give up but you got through another day. Never forget how much strength you have developed along the way."