Manti Te'o Girlfriend Hoax

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo got a visit from a world famous psychiatrist last night ... a guy who's worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to Paris Hilton ... TMZ has learned.

The shrink to the stars is Dr. Charles Sophy -- a high-ranking official with the Los Angeles Dept. of Children and Family Services.

Sophy was involved in the Michael Jackson child molestation case, the Paris Hilton jail saga (when she was suffering from panic attacks) and counseled Taylor Armstrong during her split with her husband.

But last night, Sophy appeared at the Tuiasosopo family home in Palmdale, CA ... and though he wouldn't say why he was there, it's obvious his visit is connected to the drama surrounding the Manti Te'o hoax.

When we asked Dr. Sophy if his visit was in connection to a TV show -- the doc told us, "You know I can't discuss anything."

How, you ask, did Katie Couric -- who now hosts a daytime syndicated talk show targeted at women -- snag the first on-camera interview with Manti Te'o? The answer is Matthew Hiltzik.

Hiltzik is a high-powered publicist who specializes in crisis management. He reps both Katie and Manti, but his client roster is chock-full of big celebs, including Alec Baldwin, Glenn Beck, MLB superstar Ryan Braun, Internet mogul Sean Parker, Univision's Raul De Molina, and some Canadian named Justin Bieber.

Sources tell us ... Hiltzik -- who likes working on the down-low -- put the deal together and sold it as a package -- Katie's interview will play an entire hour on her show, but parts will also be featured on Good Morning America, Nightline and World News Tonight.

It's hard to argue against the fact that Katie's one of the best interviewers on TV, but fact is ... It ain't always about what you know ... it's about who you know.

Manti Te'o will finally go on camera to talk about the recent girlfriend hoax controversy ... and Katie Couric is the lucky broadcaster to score the interview.

Te'o spoke to ESPN's Jeremy Schaap on Friday, but not on camera. During that interview, Te'o admitted he handled the Lennay Kekua situation poorly ... but maintained he was in no way involved with the hoax.

The Notre Dame linebacker told Schaap he only realized for sure this past week that he was being duped.

According to ABC News, Couric will sit down with Te'o and his parents, Brian and Ottilia Te'o. The interview will air this Thursday.

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo -- the man who allegedly spearheaded the hoax on Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o -- has finally come out of hiding ... surfacing at his family home in Palmdale, CA on Saturday evening ... TMZ has learned.

Ronaiah was wearing a hoodie and tried to hide his face. He also didn't utter a single word when asked about his role in the hoax.

Just 24 hours before Ronaiah appeared in public, Manti had told ESPN ... Ronaiah had reached out to him -- confessed to the prank -- and apologized.

According to Manti, Ronaiah was the person who created "Lennay Kekua" -- who Manti believed was a real person ... and "dated" ... even though they never met in person.

Of course, the whole thing was a hoax -- Lennay never really lived ... or died from cancer on September 11.

Manti Te'o has been the butt of jokes since the fake-dead-girlfriend hoax was revealed this week ... but now even an NHL team is getting in on the act.

The Dallas Stars flashed an empty seat on the big screen during their opening night game on Saturday, with the caption, "Manti Te'o's girlfriend -- Welcome to the game!"

Manti Te'o has broken his silence ... admitting he knew having a relationship with a "girlfriend" solely online was "crazy," insisting he was a victim, and revealing that the culprit has now apologized.

Manti gave an audio interview to ESPN -- the photo was taken in the middle of the chat -- in which he acknowledges Ronaiah Tuiasosopo tweeted him a full confession two days ago. You gotta love it ... even the confession was online. ESPN says it was followed up by a phone call.

Manti says, "I wasn't faking it. I wasn't part of this."

Manti says he now knows -- presumably from Tuiasosopo -- "Two guys and a girl are responsible for the whole thing." He says he doesn't know the identity of the second guy or the girl. He adds he didn't know for sure until Wednesday that it was all a hoax, when Tuiasosopo admitted it to him.

Manti explained why he lied to his dad and others, when he said or intimated he had seen the fictitious Lennay Kekua in the flesh. "I knew that -- I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn't meet, and that alone people find out that this gir who died I was so invested in, and I didn't meet her as well ... So I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away so people wouldn't think I was some crazy dude."

As for one of the big questions -- why didn't he at least Skype -- he says he tried to speak with Lennay through Skype or FaceTime several times, but the person on the other end was in a "black box" and couldn't be seen. He says he also tried meeting her a few times in L.A. and Hawaii, but she kept canceling.

And this is a little weird ... Manti says Lennay once asked him for his checking account number so she could send him money. He did not provide it. Still, no suspicion.

Manti says the fictitious relationship was not a full four years -- they would take breaks, but it got intense after she said her father had died.

He says things got crazy after Lennay's fake car accident when she was in the hospital, and he could only hear her breathing over the phone -- "I slept on the phone with her every night ...the only thing that could help her sleep was if I was on the phone."

As for why he didn't visit her in the hospital, he says, "It never really crossed my mind. I don't know. I was in school."

As for why he didn't attend her "funeral," he says, "Her mom told them [Lennay's family] they did not want me to come," adding, "I didn't want that to be the first time that I saw her was laying in a coffin."

Manti says on December 6 -- three months after Lennay had supposedly died -- a woman called from the number Lennay had used, saying, "Manti, it's me." He says that was the first time it was apparent to him -- he had been scammed.

Manti Te'o says he's the victim in an outrageous catfishing hoax -- or is he? We gotta ask ...

Manti Te'o is telling close friends he was so badly scarred by the Internet hoax, he doesn't think he can ever trust people again ... TMZ has learned.

Manti is telling his friends he was not only victimized by the person behind the phantom GF, he lost his real girlfriend as a result of the mess.

TMZ broke the story ... Manti started dating 21-year-old Alexandra del Pilar in early November and really liked her. But when Manti realized on December 6 he'd been played -- and he believes by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo -- he became a different person.

Our sources say Manti became "freaked out, angry, upset and withdrawn," and Alexandra couldn't handle it. And we're told ... Alexandra was dealing with a lot, because Manti let her in on his secret that he had been scammed.

We're told Alexandra pulled the plug on the relationship just before the story broke wide. Manti harbors no hard feelings and is sorry the relationship crumbled.

As for the future, we're told Manti's trust in people has been shattered and -- at least for now -- he doesn't think that trust will come back.

Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o ... two men dominating the sports headlines for all the wrong reasons. One for cheating ... and one for dating a dead person who never really existed.

Question is ...

11:49 AM PT -- New photos have surfaced showing Manti and Alexandra sitting on Santa's lap together sometime around Christmas.

Alex also posted a photo on November 16, in which she thanked Manti for giving her a couple of leis, which she hung in her car.

The dates are consistent with the story Manti is telling friends.

Manti Te'o quietly began dating an actual living, breathing female human being ... shortly after he learned "Lennay Kekua" had died from cancer ... and the rebound chick is HOT ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to Manti tell us ... the Notre Dame star met Alexandra del Pilar the weekend of November 10 -- when Notre Dame played Boston College.

Alexandra, 21, is a student at St. Mary's College in Indiana -- which is close to Notre Dame.

We're told Alexandra and Manti dated for nearly 2 months, but broke up recently.

There are rumors swirling that Manti created a fictitious GF to take the pressure off him from teammates and others who felt he should be dating, but his relationship with a real woman calls those rumors into doubt.

Manti Te'o will still be a Top 15 pick in April's NFL Draft ... despite all of the questions surrounding the hoax ... this according to former 1st round NFL draft pick Mike Williams.

Williams -- who was the #10 overall pick in the 2005 Draft -- was out in L.A. last night, when we asked if he thought Te'o's draft stock is plummeting because of the scandal.

Mike knows a little something about the politics of the draft, he was involved in a controversy of his own when he left USC early and tried to enter the 2004 draft, only to be denied by the league because he wasn't 3 years removed from high school.

Donna Tei -- whose picture was used as part of the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax -- says she and her family have never met the Notre Dame star and have no idea how she got roped into the scam.

As TMZ first reported, a Notre Dame superfan (who we're calling "Jan") says she struck up an online friendship with a person claiming to be U'ilani Rae Kekua -- the older sister of Te'o's dead "girlfriend," Lennay Kekua.

U'ilani later sent a photo to Jan showing a woman at a cemetery -- and told her, "This is me and my family at Lennay's gravesite. We're spending the day here."

But the woman in the photo couldn't have been U'ilani -- 'cause U'ilani doesn't really exist.

TMZ tracked down the actual woman in the photo -- Donna Tei -- who lives in Carson, CA. When we asked Donna and her father if they had a connection to Te'o, he told us, "We don't even know the guy."

Tei's father went on to explain the photo is of his daughter, Donna, and his wife. He claims the pic was stolen off of Facebook.

So how -- and why -- did "Lennay" decide to steal Donna's cemetery pics? We would ask Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, but he seems to have gone into hiding.

Manti Te'o is telling friends ... he knew the truth about Lennay Kekua in early December ... but continued the lie for 20 days for the sake of his team.

Sources connected to Te'o say ... it's true what ND Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said Wednesday night, that Manti realized he had been hoaxed on Dec. 6, when he got a phone call from "Lennay" ... months after he thought she was dead.

But sources tell us ... Manti didn't tell his coaches about the hoax until Dec. 26 ... because he thought it would be a huge distraction while the team prepared to face Alabama in the BCS Championship.

During the 20 days, we're told Manti struggled over how to handle the situation ... but eventually felt compelled to come clean to his coaches.

Manti is currently training for the NFL combine -- and we're told he's getting a lot of support from the guys he's been training with.

Manti Te'o continued to tell people his girlfriend died of cancer even after he learned it was all a big hoax ... and this is according to Notre Dame's public version of the facts.

During a news conference Wednesday night, ND Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said ... Manti told ND officials that he first learned the whole thing was a hoax when he received a call from his GF's phone number during an ESPN award show in December ... months after she was presumed dead.

The ESPN college football awards ceremony took place in Orlando on Dec. 6 -- but just two days later, on Dec. 8, Te'o gave a statement to reporters in anticipation of the Heisman Trophy ceremony, in which he continued to perpetuate the belief that his girlfriend had died from cancer.

Te'o told reporters ... “I don’t like cancer at all. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer,” this according to WSBT-TV.

We now know Manti's statement wasn't true -- and by Notre Dame's own account, Manti lied.

Manti Te'o and his non-existent girlfriend Lennay Kekua went public with their relationship in January 2012 ... and continued to date until she died in September ... TMZ has learned.

TMZ spoke with "Jan" ... a Notre Dame superfan who struck up an online friendship with "Lennay" through Twitter back in 2011.

According to Jan, Lennay had always maintained that she was friendly with Manti ... but didn't reveal that she was his "girlfriend" until January.

The timeline begs one really big question ... in 9 months, two college students at top universities (Lennay maintained she went to Stanford) didn't have one video chat session??

Manti Te'o didn't just inspire a new whole Internet craze (Te'oing) ... he also made life WAAAAYYY easier for one Lance "Yep, I cheated" Armstrong.