Instead of noticing the red flag, Te'o kept logging hours on the phone with the girl even giving Couric his phone bill to prove it.

The woman Manti said he loved died on Sept. 12.  However, the football star says on Dec. 6, he got a phone call from someone who said she was Lennay, now saying she was alive.

He even asked the person to send a specific picture with Lennay's signature to prove it.  Despite knowing something was amiss, he talked about his dead girlfriend in an interview just two days later.

"Part of me was saying if you say she's alive, what would everybody think?  What are you gonna tell everybody who follows you or who you've inspired.  What are you gonna say?  At that time on Dec. 8, two days after I found out she was alive, as a 21-year-old I wasn't ready for that," said Te'o.

On Dec. 21, Te'o received the picture he asked for and decided to tell his parents.  On Jan. 16, when the Deadspin.com article came out saying Lennay was a phony, Te'o says he got a phone call from Roniah Tuiasosopo who confessed to creating the fake profile of Lennay Kekua.

"Did he explain why he did it?" asked Couric.

"He didn't explain why, he just explained he wanted to help people.  Being someone he wasn't trying to connect people on another level to help them out," said Te'o.

To this day, Te'o still doesn't know who was behind the voice on the phone, but the New York Daily News says Tuiasosopo's lawyer claims it was his client the whole time, pretending to be a female.

Te'o denied any involvement in the hoax.

Couric also interviewed Te'o's parents Brian and Otillia.