Manti Te'o reflects on catfishing hoax in Netflix documentary: 'I needed to reveal it'

The bizarre catfishing scandal that embroiled Notre Dame senior standout linebacker Manti Te’o a decade ago is now the subject of a Netflix documentary.

Te’o, currently an NFL free agent, discussed the project entitled “Untold: the Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist” on CBS Mornings today.

"In order for me to kind of heal from this, I needed to reveal it," he said. "I challenged myself at this time that if anybody asked about it or had questions about it, that I would be open and I would have those hard conversations, and I started to feel the strength that I would get from talking about it."

In 2012, Te’o was a Heisman finalist and Butkus Award winner as the mainstay of a strong defensive unit that led the Fighting Irish all the way to the BCS national championship game.

OPEN JOBS: The biggest quarterback competitions that are still undecided

UNFAMILIAR FOES: The 10 best non-conference games for this season

TEXAS AT NO. 1?: It's not the only crazy vote in this year's preseason poll

In interviews at the time, he spoke about the loss of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, a Stanford student who had died of leukemia at nearly the same time Te’o’s grandmother passed away. Curiously, he said he had never met Kekua in person but only spoken with her virtually. As it turned out, she was entirely fictional.

Ronaiah “Naya” Tuiasosopo had created the persona for Kekua and interacted with Te'o. After Notre Dame's season was complete, it was reported that Te'o was a subject of elongated catfishing scheme and Kekau was not real. Tuiasosopo also appears in the documentary.

"I didn't know what to believe," Te'o said upon learning of the hoax. “What do you do with that information? Do you call somebody and say, ‘Hey, I just found out somebody's alive?’"

Te’o said another reason he is telling his story now is to make sure people understand he actually did lose somebody during that tumultuous period in his life.

“I want to bring more light to my grandmother because it is almost like this story overshadows her,” he said. “If there’s anything I’d like to do, it’s to give my grandmother that respect that has kind of been missed the last ten years.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Manti Te'o details catfishing incident at Notre Dame in Nexflix doc