What Te'o Said to Try and Explain Girlfriend Hoax Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o tried to clear the air late Friday about how he fell into an online relationship with a fictitious woman he met online who called herself Lennay Kekua. His grief at her "death" became a major story during the college football season. The problem was Kekua was a hoax - there was no such person. Te'o spoke to ESPN for 2 1/2 hours at an IMG training facility in Florida where he is training for the NFL draft. In question-and-answer form, these are some highlights of the way events unfolded, according to Te'o: A: Te'o says he received a Facebook friend request from Kekua in early 2010, his freshman year at Notre Dame. They were in contact on and off over the next couple of years and, as Te'o describes it, it naturally progressed until they started to get very close last April. At that time, Te'o was told by a person portraying Kekua's brother, that Lennay had been in a serious car accident. In the wake of that twist, Te'o began to talk to the girl much more frequently. He became hugely invested in her and was then told she had leukemia. Kekua "died" on Sept. 12, the same day Te'o's real grandmother died. Te'o said he was grief-stricken and had a testy conversation with Kekua, then - hours later - the pranksters called and said his girlfriend was dead. A: That's right. They had planned to meet up one time in San Diego during a long layover he had on his way home to Hawaii. That never happened because on April 28, Te'o says he was told, she got into a serious car accident. Te'o said he was told the accident put Kekua into a coma, and when she came out her recovery from serious injuries drew them closer. He started talking to a woman portraying Kekua every day. He said before he returned from Hawaii to South Bend for preseason practice he had planned to meet up with her on California, but he had to cancel this time to attend a family reunion in Utah. Te'o claims they tried to make video phone calls using Skype and FaceTime, but he said he could never see her face. She would say she could see him and tease him about being able to use the technology correctly. A: He says no. Skeptics contend that his story is so fantastic it's hard to believe, that he couldn't be so gullible to have been fooled by the scam. Yet no one has come forward with hard evidence that pins down Te'o as being a participant. In the lengthy and detailed story by Deadspin.com that broke the news of the hoax, the strongest accusation that Te'o was one of the perpetrators was an unidentified friend of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the alleged mastermind of the prank, telling Deadspin he was "80 percent sure" that Manti Te'o was "in on it." A: This is where it gets complicated. Te'o says he thought his girlfriend was real, but when she died - and word got out that he was playing through the deaths of both his grandmother and girlfriend - he was embarrassed that he had only ever had contact with Kekua online and by phone. Already, he had lied to his father and told him that he had seen Kekua.