Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist is a two-part documentary film released by Netflix on 16 August 2022. It is directed by Ryan Duffy and Tony Vainuku and is part of the Untold series. The episodes have a runtime of about 1 hour each and follow the scandalous event in football player Manti Te’o’s life, which ruined his image forever.
The critically-acclaimed series returns with Untold Volume 2, a four-week docu-series event that once again brings fresh eyes to epic tales from the wide world of sports. From football to basketball and streetball to sailing, these stories aren’t the ones you’ve heard before, even if you think you have.
Premiering weekly, each film kicks off at a pivotal moment and then delves deep into what happened beyond the headlines, as told by those who lived it, to reveal the grit, resilience, heartbreak, triumph, violence, comedy and pathos beneath the sweat.
-Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist Review Contains Some Spoilers-
Born into a Hawaiian paradise, All-American football standout Manti Te’o leads a simple life summed up in just three words: faith, family, and football. College football’s golden boy could do no wrong, but when tragedy strikes, the increased scrutiny of his online relationship causes a media maelstrom that threatens his future and legacy. The film features in-depth interviews with Manti Te’o and the person behind the online identity, Ronaiah ‘Naya’ Tuiasosopo, as they talk about the events that led to this chaos.
The film starts off in a rather surprising manner after a small montage about Manti going through the personal loss of his grandmother and girlfriend around the same time, during his career-defining moments. As seen in the trailer as well, it hints at the girlfriend being not real and another man behind the fake profile of the alleged girl.
And we get to see that the man behind the fake profile Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, now identifies as a transgender woman, going by the name Naya. She tells us that even though coming from a sports-playing family, she hated playing football and always knew she was different but feared coming out.
She tried to live out her dream life by impersonating a girl on Facebook. She used the pictures of an acquaintance for the profile and would talk to boys from it. On the other hand, we see Manti, who comes from a highly religious community in Laie, Hawaii. The sport of football was his gateway to college and the greatness, that he dreamt of.
And it all went good as he joined the Notre Dame football team and there was absolutely no looking back. He became the golden child of the team who lead his team to victory after victory and was thriving in his long-distance relationship as well. And like many catfish episodes, everyone must have seen, he was too deep in love to see things clearly.
In his defence, he did try to ask around the people who knew his online girlfriend Lennay and didn’t get any suspicious reports as such. Also, because Lennay had created a whole web of fake characters around her that it would be hard for someone to figure out the truth. And like any relationship, it had its ups and downs, fueled by jealousy, miscommunication etc.
Even the catfish took inspiration from the MTV show of the same name, to avoid meeting her lover by making the same excuses as a broken phone, bad network et al. And when you get so indulged in the fake life you have created, the lines between right and wrong blurs to the point of irreparable damage.
Summing Up: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist
The Untold documentary film The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist feels like an episode of the MTV show but with the aesthetic of a film and an emotional storyline. The whole catfishing may have started as a stupid mistake done by a teenager, but didn’t stop even when the person became aware of what they were doing and the effect it could have.
It’s just cruel to do something like this to a person, where your own feelings are a mess and then you go on to hurt others as well. Initially, I was sympathetic to Naya but her actions don’t really have any explanation other than the ill-will to destroy Manti. I assume her feelings lead the way when she wasn’t able to connect with him when he got busier with soaring popularity.
But even if she wasn’t a catfish and did the same things, it would be a big red flag and toxic behaviour. The film also shows the duality of media and how they could make you a king in a day, and god forbid if anything scandalous comes out, you will be down in a ditch. Manti Te’o’s career might have been somewhere else if the fake girlfriend thing hadn’t happened to him and he lives with this regret every day.
Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist is now streaming on Netflix.
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This was labeled as a documentary for those 17 and under. It should be shown as a parf of the curriculum in schools to teach students the dangers of catfishing and how it can destroy a persons life. I was nearly the victim of this kind of activity until I began to see red flags. It is a very real and serious form of hacking that goes on in social media and our children need to be armed with the knowledge of how to realize it and prevent it from happening to them.
Wow ! This is disturbing not only the slimy “reporters” who aren’t Burke and Dickey who salivated because they wanted to destroy ESPN .. no regard to what the human casualties were going to be.
The actual catfish et who takes credit for Mante accomplishment. I have never seen anything more descriptive of selfish
Heartbreaking how this almost destroyed an innocent man’s career because of some selfish immature idiot. I’m sure it took years to move thru the PTSD of this entire event. Meanwhile, he remains a dignified man, good person, awesome athelete. Best wishes to Mati in anything he pursues in the future.
The idea Manti was mocked while Naya was celebrated is a disgrace. Naya’s lies should’ve blown up in her face…not the other way around