A former Notre Dame teammate of Manti Te'o said that players knew the woman wasn't really his girlfriend even though Te'o played that up as his tragic story was being told.

After Deadspin.com broke the hoax story, however, multiple media reports have said players thought that Te'o had only met Lennay Kekua once and that it wasn't really accurate to call her his girlfriend.

Te'o began to "play along" with the story, according to the teammate.

Te'o craved attention and would sometimes point himself out to friends while on television, according to the teammate.

Te'o issued a statement Wednesday afternoon:

"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.

"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating."

The father of Te'o, Brian Te'o, reportedly exaggerated and fictionalized the relationship in the media.

"They started out as just friends," Brian Te'eo said in October. "Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there. But within the last year, they became a couple.

"And we came to the realization that she could be our daughter-in-law. Sadly, it won't happen now."