L.A. Now Live: Discuss latest twists in Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax

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Times reporter Matt Stevens will join L.A. Now Live at 9 a.m. to discuss the latest twists and turns in the Manti Te’o hoax.

For the last two weeks, the story ofManti Te’o’s fake girlfriend has unraveled one layer at a time.

The Notre Dame linebacker spoke, then a Long Beach woman whose pictures were used in the ruse came forward. But the biggestquestions could be answered only by a 22-year-old man from Palmdale -- the man Te’o and the woman allege was the mastermind behind the hoax.

Now Ronaiah Tuiasosopo has broken his public silence, saying he fell “deeply, romantically in love” with the Heisman Trophy runner-up in an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw set to air Thursday.

Tuiasosopo’s attorney, Milton Grimes, told The Times his client “feels as though he needs therapy and part of that therapy is to come out of the closet, so to speak, and tell the truth.” Grimes said Tuiasosopo is seeing a medical professional.

“His point is that he wants to heal,” Grimes said. “He knows that if he doesn’t come out and tell the truth, it will interfere with him getting out of this place that he is in.”