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Aaron Hernandez lawyer tells all - 'This man clearly was gay'

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The Aaron Hernandez story had more twists and turns than most movies.

Now, 11 months after his prison suicide, the former Patriots tight end continues to make headlines.

The two-part documentary “Aaron Hernandez Uncovered” on the Oxygen network paints the convicted murderer as someone who struggled with his sexuality — both with women and men.

In a clip from the special on TMZ.com, a former girlfriend, Alyssa Anderson, says she became suspicious of Hernandez while they were dating.

“Back in college, there was text messages I saw on his phone when he came back from a trip to Connecticut [Hernandez’s home], that was a male, that didn’t have a name, didn’t really say too much, but was a relationship with somebody. And when I questioned him about it, he always denied it,” Anderson said.

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She said he later addressed the issue as he was going through his first trial.

“And then, in one of the letters, he opened up about it, and he did admit to it,” Anderson said.

The letter she revealed shows Hernandez writing, “Please keep between us, but it’s not a shock, you caught me.”

George Leontire, an openly gay lawyer who represented Hernandez, said his client was very forthright when speaking about his sexual orientation.

“This man clearly was gay. [He] acknowledged it, acknowledged the immense pain that it caused him,” Leontire said.

Furthermore, the lawyer even claims Hernandez’s homosexuality is the reason prosecutors charged him in the 2012 murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado when he was already in prison for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.

“I found it outrageous that the government would be using someone’s sexuality to prop up a case they had no business bringing in the first place,” Leontire said.

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The attorney added that Hernandez’s upbringing made his sexuality more of a struggle.

“I think he also came out of a culture that was so negative about gay people that he exhibited some self-hatred,” Leontire said.

If Hernandez was gay, he never went public with it.

He was engaged to a woman, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, with whom he had a daughter.

Part one of the Hernandez documentary debuted Saturday night on Oxygen, and the second part airs Sunday night.

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Mike is an 11-time Michigan Emmy Award winner who has spent nearly 30 years working in sports media.
Mike has spent nearly 30 years in all aspects of sports media, including on-air, 10 at ESPN and another 10 at Fox Sports Detroit. He now works as a TV agent, and lives with his family in West Bloomfield, MI.
Birthplace
Sudbury, Massachusetts
Honors/Awards
11-time Michigan Emmy winner
Education
Emerson College
Books Written
The Longest Year: One Family's Journey Of Life, Death, And Love/If These Walls Could Talk: Detroit Tigers/If These Walls Could Talk: Detroit Lions
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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