Notre Dame star and his parents will open up on Katie

Jan 21, 2013 09:38 GMT  ·  By
Manti Te’o and his parents will sit down for an interview with Katie Couric
   Manti Te’o and his parents will sit down for an interview with Katie Couric

Over the weekend, controversial Notre Dame star Manti Te’o finally spoke out on the dead fake girlfriend hoax, insisting he played no part in it. He will also be appearing on Katie Couric’s new show Katie.

ABC confirms that Te’o and his parents have agreed to sit down with Katie for a no holds barred interview that will air on January 24.

Officially, it’s the first time that he opens up to the press on the so-called tragedy that turned out to be nothing but a huge hoax, to which he claims he was a victim as well.

“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 that will be broadcast on Thursday, Jan. 24,” ABC reports.

“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,” the same media outlet writes.

As noted above, over the weekend, Manti spoke with ESPN about the hoax that got him headlines all over the world, stressing that he was played by two men and a girl.

At the same time, he admitted to knowing that the whole thing was a hoax long before word of it got out in the media, but keeping his mouth because he didn’t know anything better to do.

In December last year, Manti told the world that his girlfriend, the “love of [his] life” had died of cancer, shortly after his grandmother had also passed away.

His story moved many fans and gave him instant exposure in the press.

Several media outlets recently did some digging around and found out that the woman had never even existed. Te’o is now saying that he was played, falling for an online hoax (of the “Catfish” type) orchestrated by 2 men and 1 woman.