Ronaiah Tuiasosopo’s female cousin was ‘Lennay Kekua,’ according to report

It turns out the woman Manti Te’o spoke to on the phone reportedly was actually a woman, throwing another twist into the complicated story that everybody would prefer would stop having twists thrown into it.

Thursday, the earth-shattering news broke that the woman Te’o spent 500 hours of phone time talking to was former high school football player turned YouTube musician Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, whose lawyer admitted that his client had been behind the hoax and had talked in a female voice to trick the Notre Dame linebacker. Then, Te’o released audio of voicemails from the supposed Lennay Kekua, and the voice sounded like a woman, and we got mad we had to keep writing about this.

However, when relatives of Tuiasosopo heard the voicemails, they were convinced it wasn’t, in fact, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo speaking in a woman’s voice. The New York Post reported that several of his relatives believe the woman on the phone was Tino Tuiasosopo, a cousin of Ronaiah’s who lives in American Samoa and lists “acting” as one of her hobbies.

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo’s lawyer supposedly admitted his client did the voice-over work because Tuiasosopo didn’t want others to take the blame now that everything has come out, but it was his cousin Tino Tuiasosopo -- who had apparently just been in an ill-fated long-distance relationship -- who was talking to Te’o.

Looking forward to the next piece of news on this story, you guys!