The bizarre case of the nonexistent girlfriend

For Notre Dame, an Inspiration That Wasn't Real
Excerpt:

A University of Notre Dame football star received broad public sympathy last fall over the death of a girlfriend who turns out not to have existed.

The sports website Deadspin reported Wednesday that Lennay Kekua, the supposed girlfriend of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, never existed, even as media outlets ran articles last fall about Mr. Te'o's inspiring on-field performances in the wake of what was said to be her death in September.

Both Mr. Te'o and Notre Dame acknowledged Wednesday that Lennay Kekua, who was said to have been a Stanford University student, was a hoax. Both Mr. Te'o and the school described the player as a victim of that hoax. "Over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her," said Mr. Te'o's statement.

In a news conference Wednesday, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Mr. Te'o told the school that he learned of the hoax in the first week of December, when he received a phone call from the number he had associated with Lennay Kekua. The voice he knew to be the woman's told Mr. Te'o that she wasn't dead. "Manti was very unnerved by that, as you may imagine," Mr. Swarbrick said.

Comment: I think I may have been in love with a soriety girl like this back when I was a freshman in college! ABC news calls it being "catfished". Of course we all want to see picture of the beauty. Oh never mind! (Didn't help 'em with Bama!)

Deadspin article that broke the hoax. More from Slate. Leave dating tips for Manti in the comments.

Update: Nine Questions | Timeline

Now here's a question (article):

According to WSBT-TV, Te’o made reference to his dead girlfriend two days after the day he supposedly learned of the hoax. “I don’t like cancer at all. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer,” Te’o said on December 8, while talking to reporters in advance of the Heisman Trophy ceremony.