Who is Manti Te'o's wife? NFL star was dragged for hoax involving fake girlfriend
An alleged fake high school called Bishop Sycamore apparently convinced TV giant ESPN to get on national television. The sports network ended up airing a high school football match involving the school that is not real. Apparently, the fake school lost the match by 58-0. However, it all turned out to be a hoax that quickly sparked a meme fest on the Internet.
The situation soon escalated and NFL’s player Manti Te’o got dragged into the entire matter as social media users recalled how he was once part of a controversy that involved the death of his girlfriend that never existed. The former Notre Dame linebacker made headlines way back in 2012 and 2013 after his girlfriend was exposed to be a hoax. It was later revealed that the entire plot was a part of a prank.
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This is what happens when ESPN gets duped into airing a high school football game between the most talented team in the country and an online charter school nobody has heard of, went 0-6 last year, and lied about its roster to get on TV. pic.twitter.com/QUwM8BQKiY
— Ben Koo (@bkoo) August 29, 2021
Who was Manti Te’o’s fake girlfriend?
The 30-year-old’s fake girlfriend was called Lennay Kekua, who died from Leukemia on the same day his grandmother died. The publication Deadspin had then cracked the entire case revealing the woman never existed sending his fans into a tizzy. The pictures used on Kekua’s fake Twitter account turned out to be of a woman named Diane O’Meara. It was reported that an alleged hoax perpetrator Ronaiah Tuiasosopo took her pictures from Facebook to play a prank on the NFL star, as reported by the website Today.
According to the website Larry Brown Sports, the sportsperson had even shared an emotional statement to ESPN at the time of the death of his fake girlfriend. “Somebody told me one time the hardest thing about goodbyes is that when you wake up in the morning you have to say it again when you realize that they’re not there.” He added, “So every morning when I wake up and my girlfriend’s not on the phone, it reminds me that she’s gone, and that’s the hardest part for me. I go through it every day.”
In an official statement later released by Te’o, he had said, “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” adding, “To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.”
Who is Manti Te’o now married to?
After the fiasco, Manti Te’o did find true love in the form of model girlfriend Jovi Nicole Engbino whom he got married to in August 2020. The duo tied the knot in a beautiful oceanside ceremony. Te’o had even dedicated a post on Instagram while sharing a stunning picture of his wife, “I couldn’t give you the world but I think I did better...I gave you my last name and it looks good on you Mrs. Te’o.”
Jovi Nicole Engbino, who is an Instagram model, too shared a post with multiple pictures where she wrote, “Yesterday I got to marry my best friend and the love of my life in an intimate beach ceremony. Although this was not how we envisioned our ceremony, it was perfect. We will be having our reception and celebration when Temples and venues open back up so we can share this special occasion with our families and I couldn’t be more excited.”