Was Aaron Hernandez gay? NFL star-turned-convict told his mom about his sexuality during heated exchange
Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL star who was found dead on April 19, 2017, after hanging himself in prison, is now the subject of REELZ network's special show, 'Aaron Hernandez: Life Inside'. Hernandez had shot Odion Lloyd, the boyfriend of his fiancee’s sister. Hernandez was soon arrested for the act after Lloyd's body was found in a nearby industrial park which was nearly a mile away from his residence. After he got arrested, several reports claiming that Hernandez was gay or bisexual started floating in.
Before Hernandez killed himself, he stuffed cardboard in the tracks of his cell door, making it difficult for prison officers to enter and render aid. That was not a new tactic for him. He had twice previously been disciplined for tampering with the door and covering its path, according to a review of his disciplinary records at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Facility. In addition, Hernandez did not have drugs in his system when he was found naked hanging from a bedsheet in his prison cell, according to a death investigation from Massachusetts State Police and the Worcester County district attorney.
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Netflix documentary titled, 'Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez' was released last year. In the first episode, Hernandez's high school quarterback Dennis SanSoucie alleges that he and Hernandez were in “an on and off-relationship from seventh grade to junior year of high school,” and during that time, they “experimented” with one another. “You mean to tell me that the quarterback and the tight end, he’s gay? He sleeps with other men?” says SanSoucie. “We had to hide what we were.” In the show, he describes his years-long friendship with Hernandez, which first began on the football field. The pair attended Bristol Central High School in Connecticut, where they dominated with SanSoucie at quarterback and Hernandez as tight end; off the field, they smoked weed together and played around. “We used to horseplay, that was our thing. We used to love horseplaying and having fun with each other because we were just kids full of life,” says SanSoucie.
SanSoucie claims that his friendship with Hernandez soon turned romantic. “Aaron and I had an on and off-relationship from the seventh grade to junior year of high school,” he alleges. “Aaron participated with many people. I was a small piece of Aaron’s sexual activity.” “At that time frame, the girls didn’t really hang out with the boys after school, so, you know, me and Aaron experimented,” continues SanSoucie. “And it was something that, I’ll be honest, that we continued because we probably enjoyed it. Um, hello?”
“If I look at it now in the year that we’re in, yes we were in a relationship back then. But at the time you don’t look at it like that,” he says, adding that there weren’t many “kids out of the closet” at their high school. “Here I am the football player — I was in such denial, such denial because I was an athlete. You mean to tell me that the quarterback and the tight end, he’s gay? He sleeps with other men? No, it doesn’t sit right with people. It doesn’t sit right within our own stomach at that time.” SanSoucie goes on to describe his alleged relationship with Hernandez as “weird,” particularly because both of their fathers were openly homophobic. “After doing it, it was like, ‘F***, did someone catch us? Did someone know? Dude, if we get caught, it’s ruined. Our parents are going to disown us,'” he recalls.
A Daily Mail report suggests that Hernandez tearfully told his mother that he was gay in a heated exchange during one of the family's prison visits to the convicted football star, his brother shared. Hernandez's brother, Jonathan shared in an interview with Dr. Oz that his troubled brother and mother had a talk that she is going to die while never knowing her son.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez said she wishes the late NFL star had told her he was secretly gay, saying that she “would not have loved him any differently.” “If he did feel that way, or if he felt the urge, I wish that I was told,” Jenkins-Hernandez said, fighting back tears as she addressed the rumors. And I wish that he would’ve told me ’cause I would not have loved him any differently. I would have understood. It’s not shameful and I don’t think anybody should be shameful of who they are inside, regardless of who they love. I think it’s a beautiful thing. I just wish I was able to tell him that,” she insisted.
The NFL star’s desperation to keep his sexuality a secret has been suggested as a possible motive for him shooting dead former friend Odin Lloyd. The special show will air on Sunday, February 14 at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT on REELZ.