Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the mastermind behind the Manti Te’o hoax, revealed during the second part of an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw that he had been molested as a child.
Tuiasosopo said tricking Te’o into falling for a fake woman he had created had “everything to do” with escaping real life.
TE’O: Full coverage of the hoax[1]
He toldMcGraw that he had been repeatedly molested by a family friend starting when the 22-year-old Tuiasosopo was 12.
Tuiasosopo explained that by creating the fictitious love interest of Te’o, Lennay Kekua, he was able to live in an alternate reality and prove to himself that he was a good person.
Tuiasosopo did not identify his alleged molester in the interview and did not specify if he had gone to the authorities.
