Dr. Phil Teaser
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo sits down for an interview set to air in two 'Dr. Phil' episodes.
The truth behind the Manti Te'o hoax love story continues to unfold, this time with hoaxter Ronaiah Tuiasosopo saying Te’o had no role in the deception and saying he was the voice of the fictional girlfriend Lennay Kekua, speaking for the first time in a sit-down interview on "Dr. Phil."
Tuiasosopo also tells Dr. Phil McGraw that he considered his years-long exchange with the Notre Dame football star to be a romantic one, admitting that he is "confused" about his sexuality.
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"Here we have a young man who fell deeply, romantically in love," McGraw told NBC News. "I asked him straight up, 'Was this a romantic relationship with you?' And he says yes. I said, 'Are you then therefore gay?' And he said, 'When you put it that way, yes.' And then he caught himself and said, 'I am confused.'"
Tuiasosopo, who is accused of tricking Te'o into believing he was in a relationship with a fictional woman named Lennay Kekua, described his own turmoil throughout the relationship to McGraw.
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"I wanted to end it because after everything I had gone through I finally realized that I just had to move on with my life and had to get ... you know my real me Ronaiah ... I just had to start living and let this go," he said.
McGraw also told NBC News that he spent a lot of time with Tuiasosopo and his family, attempting to understand what led him to pull the elaborate prank.
PHOTOS: CELEBS COME OUT
"Ronaiah had a number of life experiences that damaged this young man in some very serious ways," he said.
Te'o had also come clean about his involvement. The linebacker told Katie Couric in an interview that he had no part in the hoax until the end of it, from when he lied about not knowing his girlfriend wasn’t real.
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He expressed that he only learned of the truth after a December phone call from a woman claiming to be his girlfriend debunked his previous understanding that Kekua had died in September.
"Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on September 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on September 12," Te'o said to Couric. "Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she's alive, and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?"
Tuiasosopo has also apologized to the woman whose photos he used as Kekua, Diane O'Meara.
The Dr. Phil special is slated to air over two days, January 31 and February 1.
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