Diane O’Meara, the real woman in the photos of Manti Te’o's fake girlfriend Lennay Kekua, said on ‘Today’ that her former high school classmate Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was behind the entire hoax, and stole her personal Facebook photos without her knowledge. Read on for more of her first interview.
Diane O’Meara is the face behind Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o‘s fake online girlfriend who was known as Lennay Kekua — and she said on the Today show during her first interview that she and the man responsible for the hoax Ronaiah Tuisasosopo were high school classmates, but she had no idea her photos were being used for an elaborate hoax.
Diane spoke to Savannah Guthrie on Today on Jan. 23 in her first interview since the Manti Teo hoax was exposed, and said she was Facebook friends with Ronaiah because they went to a small high school and everyone knew everyone, but she had only spoken to him a few times — and she had never even heard of the NCAA football star Manti Teo.
“Up until about a week ago, I had never met [Manti] in my entire life,” she told Savannah, and said she didn’t even know her photos were being used in an elaborate online hoax to deceive Manti until reporters broke the news to her.
“It’s difficult, it’s definitely very shocking,” she said about finding out that her pics were used for a fake online profile. “Even today, I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of it. I have my own boyfriend of five years, a serious committed relationship,” she added.
Why Diane O’Meara Sent Private Pics To Ronaiah Tuiasosopo
Ronaiah had allegedly pulled most of her pics from her Facebook page, but Diane revealed during her interview why she sent a few private photos that weren’t posted to her Facebook to her old high school classmate — whom she hadn’t spoken to in years.
She said Ronaiah contacted her saying his cousin had been in a traumatic car accident, and as a birthday gift, he wanted to do a photo slideshow of pics and well wishes from former classmates, so he requested a specific private photo of Diane holding up a handwritten sign.
Diane said she thought it was for Ronaiah’s cousin, who she thought was still in the hospital with head trauma, but that Ronaiah instead used it as part of his social media hoax.
Even though she is still shocked and appalled about the entire incident, Diane said she doesn’t plan on pressing charges against anyone at this time.
Watch Diane’s First Interview Below
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What a shocking story! What do YOU think about what Diane said HollywoodLifers? Let us know in the comments below!
– Christina Stiehl
More Manti Te’o hoax news:
- Manti Te’o To Come Clean To Katie Couric In First On-Camera Interview
- Manti Te’o Gives First Interview: I’m Innocent — Listen
- Manti Te’o Dated A Real Girl After ‘Death’ Of Hoax Girlfriend — Report
Sam
Posted at 2:06 AM on February 3, 2013
I honestly feel extremely bad for him. I think it’s extremely cruel that people did this to him and for the public to be cruel to him for his mistake. If they’re so upset about it it’s because they believes it as we’ll therefore, they should understand why he believed it too. If a group of journalist and media experts as well as a nation believe it, why not a 21 year old kid?