Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man who has
admitted to hoaxing Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o into
falling in love with a non-existent woman, has said that he is a
“recovering homosexual.”
Tuiasosopo fooled Te'o into believing
that the girl of his dreams had died of cancer. In fact, the woman
known as Lennay Kekua never existed.
The story inspired countless fans as
Te'o went on to lead his team to victory just hours after learning of
the death of his grandmother and girlfriend.
In an interview with Dr. Phil,
Tuiasosopo said he was gay, then backtracked by adding that he's a
“recovering homosexual.”
“Are you gay?” Dr. Phil asked.
“If you look at this situation and
everything that I've been through, I would say yeah I'm gay. But
honestly, I'm so confused.”
“But what you know is that you did
have romantic feelings for another man.”
“Yes,” Tuiasosopo said. “You
know, you've heard of recovering drug addicts. It takes a lot of
courage to recover from homosexuality and this type of thing and
coming back to your real life. As hard a task it is, I'm going to do
all I can to live right.”
Dr. Phil responded by saying that “a
lot of [what you just said] bothers me so much.”
(Related: Manti
Te'o 'faaaar from' being gay.)
(Watch
the segment on Dr. Phil.)