The man behind the Manti Te'o hoax claims to be a "recovering homosexual"

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man accused of inventing a fake girl as part of an elaborate hoax played on Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o is now claiming to be a “recovering homosexual.”

Tuiasosopo allegedly impersonated a female named Lennay Kekua and embarked on a three year relationship with Te’o which resulted in Te’o referring to Kekua as his “girlfriend” on many occasions.

Appearing on the Dr. Phil show Tuiasosopo was asked if he is gay. "I asked him, straight up, was this a romantic relationship with you?" said Dr. Phil "And he says, 'yes.' I then said, are you then, therefore, gay? He says, 'Well, when you put it that way, yes.' And then, he caught himself and said, 'I am confused.'"

Tuiasosopo went on to say, “You’ve heard of recovering drug addicts? It takes a lot of courage to stand and say that. To recover from homosexuality and this type of thing. Not only that, coming back to your real life, as hard as a task as that is I’m going to do all that I can to live right.”

According to excerpts released from the show Tuiasosopo also discussed his “confused” sexual identity and said that he "fell deeply, romantically in love" Te’o over the course of their relationship.

Tuiasosopo also stated that Te’o played absolutely no part in the hoax and was unaware that Kekua was not, in fact, a real female.