Manti Te’o was Notre Dame college's hot shot linebacker and was tipped to be the next NFL superstar. However, it all came crashing down for Te’o in 2013 after he dedicated his senior football season to his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, who he believed had died of cancer. In a shocking turn of events, it turns out that Kekua never existed and Te’o was the victim of a 'catfishing' hoax by an acquaintance called Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who had pretended to be the person Te’o was talking to online. Tuiasosopo, who has come out as a transgender woman since the scandal, now goes by the name Naya.
Though innocent, there was speculation that Te’o had faked the death of his girlfriend for attention. Te’o would go on to play in the NFL, but the catfishing controversy cost him a first-round draft pick for the NFL in 2013 and millions of dollars as a result. Netflix recently released a documentary on the bizarre situation titled Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist.