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It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for!

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man behind the Manti Te’o Catfish hoax, is finally speaking out.

Ronaiah sat down for his first interview last week with Dr. Phil after watching Manti’s Katie Couric interview, and as we hoped, he finally addressed his sexuality and Manti’s involvement.

Dr. Phil told NBC’s Today: 

“Here we have a young man that fell deeply, romantically in love…I asked him straight up, ‘Was this a romantic relationship with you?’ And he says yes. I said, ‘Are you then therefore gay?’ And he said, ‘When you put it that way, yes.’ And then he caught himself and said, ‘I am confused.’”

And it gets even more interesting…

Tuiasosopo also said that Te’o was “absolutely, unequivocally” not involved with the hoax in any way. Dr. Phil said that he spent several hours with Tuiasosopo and his family and that Ronaiah had a number of life experiences that “damaged him in very serious ways.”

The entire interview will air Thursday and Friday. 

But now TMZ is reporting that Tuiasosopo created a “fantasy world” for himself because he felt crushing social pressure from 3 major forces in his life…and to hide his sexuality.

Sources close to Ronaiah tell TMZ … he was always afraid to explore his sexuality fearing scorn and ridicule from the Samoan community, his church community and the football community. At an early age, we’re told Ronaiah created a private world for himself, that was not rooted in reality.

Besides playing high school football, Ronaiah’s family is a VERY football-centric group — with several members having played in the NFL. 

Instead, we’re told Ronaiah created a female character, like Lennay, to interact with men through her … because instead of feeling guilt about his sexuality, he could chalk it all up to make-believe.

The plot thickens again! We’ll definitely be tuned in!

SOURCE: Larry Brown Sports