Katie Couric to Interview Manti Te’o, Notre Dame Football Star Who Was Victim of Hoax
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Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Katie Couric has scored the first on-camera interview with Manti Te’o for her syndicated daytime talk show, “Katie.”
Couric will sit down with Te’o and his parents, Brian and Ottilia Te’o, who are speaking out for the first time and say they were also victims of the hoax. Their conversation will be broadcast on Thursday, Jan. 24.
The Notre Dame football star has claimed he is the victim of a hoax, after it was revealed that his girlfriend never existed, and her death was faked.
The story has raised a cloud of questions about who was involved, why the hoax was perpetrated and whether Te’o, runner-up for the Heisman Trophy this season, himself made up the story.
In an interview with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap last week , Te’o admitted a few mistakes in his own conduct, including telling his father he met “Lennay Kekua” in Hawaii even though his attempt to meet her actually failed. Later retellings of that tale led to inconsistencies in media reports, Te’o said, adding that he never actually met Kekua in person.
Te’o added that he feared people would think it was crazy for him to be involved with someone that he never met, so, “I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away.”
Te’o told ESPN’s Schaap that he only learned for sure this week that he had been duped.
Now he and his parents will give Couric the full story.
Couric will preview exclusive content and her own original reporting across ABC News platforms, including “Good Morning America,” “World News,” “Nightline,” ABCNews.com and ABC News Radio.
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