Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Biggest Catfish Scam in History - The Manti Te'o story

Episode Date: May 3, 2025

Manti Te'o, a standout linebacker at Notre Dame, became the center of a high-profile catfishing scandal in 2013. During his senior season in 2012, Te'o publicly shared that both his grandmother and his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, had died on the same day. This narrative garnered national sympathy and bolstered his Heisman trophy prospects. However, investigations revealed that Lennay Kekua never existed. The persona was fabricated by Ronaiah "Naya" Tuiasosopo, who used photos of another woman to create a fictitious online identity. Te'o had been in an online relationship with Kekua, believing her to be real.

Have I ever told a joke about someone and later felt bad about it? Well, yeah, all the time, actually. So this is Manti, and Manti is 20 years old during this time, living in Indiana, and he's a college football star who everyone knows is going to eventually be in the NFL. But one day in 2011, Manti does something that's going to change his life forever. He responds to a friend's post on Facebook. The friend is this girl, Leney, and Lennie is, also a college student but she goes to a different school. Now Manti doesn't really know

her. She just randomly added him on Facebook one day a few years before. But one day he responds to something she posts on Facebook and from there they start chatting and they hit it off and they start tweeting each other they exchange numbers they become friends and the more they talk the more Manti is like damn this girl kind of fine. And so by 2012 they're talking every night online and over the phone and eventually he decides to make Linnae his girlfriend. But unfortunately, they can't meet up because he goes to Notre Dame while she goes to Stanford, which is on the other side of the country. Regardless, every night they talk and they fall asleep on the phone together. It's, you know, adorable. But then

one day, out of nowhere, something terrible happens. Lanay gets into an awful car accident and she's in critical condition. And to make it worse, when she's in the hospital, her doctors that she has leukemia, so she needs a bone marrow transplant now. And so members of Linnae's family are calling and texting Mantai and letting him know her condition and that she's in the hospital. And of course, this is devastating to Mantai. He doesn't want to lose his girlfriend. However, over the next few weeks, her condition gets worse and worse.

And eventually, Mantai's fears come true. Linnae's family contacts him and tells him that she has been. passed away. And poor Mantai, he doesn't know what to do. I mean he has a big football game that night. Plus, his grandmother just passed away too, so that is also weighing on him. And right before the game, he breaks down in the locker room. I mean, this girl was really important to him. And then Linnae's sister tells Mantai that before she died, Linnae had preemptively written him a letter for every football game for the rest of the season. And in one of the letters, she says, babe, if anything happens to me, you promise that you'll stay there and you'll play

and you'll honor me through the way you play. And so, Mantai thinks about this and he decides to give this game his all in honor of Linnae. And so, bam, he goes out on the field and he plays an amazing game, 12 tackles, two interceptions, bro is kicking ass out there. And after the game, he gets interviewed and he tells the press the awful news that both his grandmother and his girlfriend died on the same day. Knowing that, you know, my girlfriend and my grandma are watching and they're right beside me and helping me, you know, help my team win.

And everyone feels so bad for him. And of course, this story blows up. People are talking about it. It's getting all sorts of coverage. Keo's girlfriend, Linnae Kekua, who was battling leukemia, had died. But then things start to get really crazy. Because one day, randomly, Linnae's sister calls up Manta. And in the middle of the conversation, out of fucking nowhere, Linnae gets on the phone like,

Hey, I'm still alive. And Mantey is like, what the hell? And so they eventually convince him that Linnae had to pretend to be dead because she got into some trouble or something. I don't know. It's stupid. And so I guess he goes and tells his family, hey, my girlfriend's still alive. And his family is like, uh, no, bro. something weird is going on, and that is when they tell him something he definitely doesn't want to hear.

They think Linnae isn't real and that somehow Mantai is being catfished. But here's the crazy thing, though. They're right. He is being catfished. Linnae doesn't exist. Linnae is actually this person, Naya. And Naya is just a random individual who friended Manti on Facebook. one day and eventually developed a crush on him and wanted to catfish him.

So in real life, Naya doesn't look like this. Naya looks like this. And so Naya had used another woman's photo and started catfishing Mantae, and he kept it going for a long time. Like they would chat and text, and when they would talk on the phone, Nia would put on a feminine voice to fool him. And to be fair, bro, it's got a pretty good feminine voice.

Hey, babe, I'm just calling to say, good night. I love you. I know that you've probably been homework or you're with the boys. And yeah, turns out Naya is actually really good at doing voices. In fact, he's so good. He did the voices for not only Lennie, but for all of Lene's family members who called Manti as well. All of them were fake. So any time one of Lene's family members would call Manti, it was really just Naya calling from a different phone number, putting on a voice.

That's insane. I know. But anyway, meanwhile, some reporters over on a sports blog, they get an anonymous tip and they start investigating and they figure out that Linnae is, in fact, a catfish. And that is when they drop a bomb and they tell the whole world that Mantai, this well-known college football star, his dead girlfriend, is really a guy. And so of course this story blows the fuck up. I mean, it is everywhere. because people think Manti either made it up for attention or that he's secretly gay. And of course, Manti's all embarrassed because, like, who wouldn't be? I mean, he got tricked.

And the media is all over this story and they start questioning him directly about his sexuality. Are you gay? No. Far from it. Far from that. Oh, but it doesn't stop there. Because unfortunately for him, that's when the entire internet starts clowning him. Twitter is lit up with jokes and so many memes.

They're making skits about him online. Frickin S&L does a whole bit about it. Linnae was the hoax. She's not a real person. Oh! Right, now I get it. Oh man, Linnae is gonna be pissed. And yes, even I made fun of it. I posted about it to my millions of followers saying,

here I am choking Mantey Tales girlfriend. And yeah, I know, it's a dumb. It's a dumb joke, but I was one of those people who thought Manti was gay and that he didn't want to publicly admit it because, you know, he's very religious. I guess he's very Mormon. And that the media caught him with his long-distance boyfriend, so they exposed him. And then he decided to lie to everyone and say, hey, I'm not gay. I was actually catfish. And yeah, a lot of people believe that.

And I guess I did too. Regardless, the story eventually fell out of the news cycle and everyone moved on. Then 12 years later in 2025, someone on my team pitches this Mantei Teo story to me to make into one of these crime videos. So I look into it and do research and find that, hey, the dude actually wasn't secretly gay and lying about it after all. He actually was catfished. Like he was the victim. Like sure, maybe he should have known better or maybe he should have done more research, but whatever, he was definitely the victim of this other person's scam. So technically, I'm the asshole for dogpiling on him to my millions of followers when he didn't necessarily deserve it.

And, you know, that's my bad. So yeah, sometimes I do say shit and then feel bad about it later. I guess that answers that. But anyway, regardless of this scandal, afterwards, Man Thai goes on to play in the NFL where he plays for about eight years. And he does a lot of football commentary now and he seems to be really good at it. So good for him. While Naya, on the other hand, the person who catfished has since come out as trans and appears to have fully transitioned. So, good for her.