Aaron Hernandez‘s lawyer claimed his client “clearly was gay” in Aaron Hernandez Uncovered, a TV special that premiered Saturday night on Oxygen.
Just to recap: The 27-year-old former Patriots star was serving a life sentence for murder when he was found dead in his prison cell in 2017. The cause of death was ruled a suicide. Afterwards, rumors quickly began circulating that Hernandez was either gay or bisexual and that he had had a jailhouse lover, a claim his family has denies.
Now, Hernandez’s lawyer, George Leontire, says he spoke with his client about being “clearly” gay shortly before the athlete committed suicide.
“[He] acknowledged it,” Leontire, who is openly gay, claims in the TV special. “Acknowledged the immense pain that it caused him.”
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Related: Aaron Hernandez’s fiancee says he was ‘very much a man’ and not gay in subtly homophobic interview
Leontire says the 27-year-old tight end struggled with his sexuality because he “came out of a culture that was so negative about gay people that he exhibited some self-hatred.”
Alyssa Anderson, Hernandez’s college girlfriend, also makes an appearance in the special. She says she suspected Hernandez was gay and once caught him texting men while they were dating.
“Back in college, there were text messages I saw on his phone when he came back from a trip [that were] from a male,” she reveals. “[They] didn’t have a name, didn’t really say too much, but it was a relationship with somebody and I questioned it.”
Anderson says Hernandez denied being gay while they were together, but he admitted to it later in letters they exchanged while he was in prison. “Please keep between this,” she claims he wrote. “But it’s not a shock, you caught me. LOL.”
Related: Aaron Hernandez bisexual rumors rekindled by new book about the convicted killer
DCguy
No shock, homophobia and fear of being exposed puts people under a lot of stress. Combine that with his head trauma and….
ChrisK
No no. His daughters already said on Dr Phil that her Dad was too much of man to be Gay. I mean if anyone would know she would.
Kangol
Huh? Aaron Hernandez had only one daughter, and she’s five years old. What are you talking about?
Donston
Probably meant his baby mama.
ChrisK
Oops. Yep. That’s what I meant.
ChrisK
Wow. Had Hernandez not been involved with the law, he would have earned upwards of $17 million in the 2017-2018 season. The Patriots offered him a 7-year deal worth $39,582,000 in 2012. According to The Richest, Hernandez’s net worth was estimated at $50 thousand at the time of his death. It all went to his legal defense which didn’t do much for him.
Amazing how much these guys get paid. Sure not coming from me.
https://heavy.com/sports/2017/05/aaron-hernandez-net-worth-house-estate-patriots-salary/
alterego1980
His lefal defense team actually did a ton for him. More than he deserved. He was acquitted of charges in the drive by case and that was going to be the basis for a re-trial to get off from the Lloyd case. The timing of his suicide remains odd when he actually had a real chance at freedom. None of this takes away from the fact that he was, and will always be a piece of Sh!t gang-banger
prarie pup
Actually, if you have cable, it is coming from you. The outrageous salaries of TV stars and pro athletes is a big reason cable costs go up and up and the sports packages are some of the most expensive. If I were a sports fan I’d shut up about it but I’m not.
The cable companies bundle the channels together and you have to take the whole thing or nothing. You want ABC and the Disney channel? You have to take–and pay for–ESPN and the Home Shopping Network too.
arj
I’m not really sure exactly why this is so important, especially since Hernandez is no longer able to participate in the discussion. Could it be significant only to sell a book or TV special advertising?
Creamsicle
It’s all speculation at this point, but it’s part of a larger discussion of the harmful effects of homophobia and how internalized homophobia can lead people to self destructive behaviors.
happiness17
Hernandez is dead. At this point whether or not he was gay is a non-issue. This does make light that there are a lot of professional athletes who are gay. They’re afraid to come out of the closet, so to speak, because
homophobia. They’re afraid that they’re careers could be ruined. That could very well happen.
Donston
I’m always uncomfortable with people talking about someone who isn’t here to speak for themselves and using them for their own gains.
There are many closeted gay and gay-leaning men. Most don’t end up killing people or living a life of violence. Yes, perhaps being gay/gay-leaning and resenting it and shielding it due to his job and the culture of which he was raised in may have contributed to his craziness. However, the CTE, the sexual abuse he dealt with as a child and joining a gang at a very young age probably contributed just as much if not more to his mentality and behaviors.
RIGay
I can buy some of this story, and if this were back in the 1990’s, I would say “Oh my gosh, how awful”, but by the time all of this transpired, I think it was more the CTE ravaging this brain than fighting demons about his sexuality; there was just too much fluidity and acceptance at that point. I have to concur with the other posters; someone is just using this as a means for personal gain. Where are the proceeds going from the sale of the story? CTE research and support? Or someones pocket?
And right or wrong, I will say Aaron’s swaying VPL when they led him out of his McMansion in handcuffs made me blush.
Kangol
Aaron Hernandez’s story is so tragic on so many levels. As Donston points out, the combo of sexual abuse, the CTE, the trauma he experienced after his father’s untimely death and his mother’s troubled relationship, and wrong crowd he connected with all led him, despite his tremendous athletic gifts, to his early death, and, it seems, to the murder of at least one and possibly more people.
Kangol
And the DL situation, if it is true (and appears to be), only exacerbated the situation.
Donston
I do however think this further highlights how important it is for gay/gay-leaning/queer/whatever people to confront sexual abuse and assualt, metal health, self-loathing and internalized homophobia. These are things that we keep putting on the back burner in order to protect agenda. There’s clearly a lot to Aaron’s story, but still.
Hussain-TheCanadian
Do we know why he murdered Odin Loyd, or is it still speculation?
Chris
In my fantasies, he was always VERY gay…
Kieran
Hernandez gay? No, can’t be. He was a macho Latino professional football player. No way he could be gay. I can’t even picture him in a dress.
Mr-DJ
A DRESS? Who the F said anything about a dress? Hopefully you are just being VERY facetious….
Cylest Brooks
I’m with Mr-DJ.
Kangol
You’re being really homophobic on a gay site. What the hell is wrong with you? Get help!
Donston
I thought this was pretty obvious sarcasm people.
Jaxton
Calling him gay when he is able to have sex with women is reflective of the Left’s fear of male bisexuality and male power in general..
Donston
“… when he was able to have sex with a woman”. Boy bye. I was able to have sex with women a multitude of times but never developed legit desire, passion, sexual satisfaction or romantic satisfaction towards chicks. Any dude who’s in the same boat as me should not be claiming “bisexual”. It’s unclear if Aaron was in that boat however.
Ultimately, the struggle has little to do with women. It’s the individual who suffers from the contort ego and instincts. If you’re contending with internalized homophobia, self-resentment, issues with past sexual abuse, etc. no single person is gonna fix that. Hell, having an entirely “gay friendly” family and social circle often doesn’t fix it. There have been plenty of men who have said they were with women who “understood” and accepted them, but they still contended with depression, self-loathing, dissatisfaction, self-destructive instincts, internalized homophobia, etc. This is not a “female problem”. And in case you haven’t noticed, many a female have varied opinions of male bisexuality. And the “bisexual man movement” has been mostly driven by women. So, your perspective is aging poorly. The dude clearly had a ton of issues that had nothing to do with women.
Blackceo
This just reinforces for me that many Black and Latino fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, etc need to do better at breaking down these reinforced BS ideals of masculinity. It is also alleged that he was molested as a child and it doesn’t appear that he didn’t process that at all through therapy. It really is a tragedy all around, for everyone involved. The advanced CTE can certainly explain some things, but Hernandez, like a lot of athletes who grow up with nothing and hang with the wrong crowd, end up staying associated with the wrong crowd once they hit the big time and it trips them up.
There was never a motive stated for the murder of Odin Lloyd and there has been speculation that it was to keep his bi/gay secret since Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez’ fiancee. Then, its being said that the night he got a call about the bi/gay rumors getting out is the night he hung himself. I don’t know. I just know that many Black and Latino boys who grow up hearing derogatory terms used to describe gays and lesbians by their loved ones causes great damage. For historically marginalized folk to feel like they wouldn’t even be able to take comfort among their own because of their sexuality is a hard thing. It clearly manifested itself in Aaron having such shame and internalized homophobia that he engaged in some really poor behavior.
Aires the Ram
@Blackceo: You said: “I just know that many Black and Latino boys who grow up hearing derogatory terms used to describe gays and lesbians by their loved ones causes great damage.”
What you’re saying is basically true, knowing you’re homosexual at a young age and being surrounded by hostility about who you are (when they have no clue about you), is a very painful thing. That is why, in the 70’s and 80’s, so many homosexual men from the small towns and country in the hinterlands flocked to the big cities with large gay populations, to get away from the hostility of home. To men who grew up in that era (and before), this was not only limited to men of color, it was all of us who grew up in the country and small towns. You’d hear jokes against homosexual men on television, on the radio, amongst your “friends”, from much of your family members, many who you were dependent on and looked up to. They were supposed to love you and care for you, but in their ignorance and bigotry, they were constantly putting a dagger right through your heart. There are a lot of regular men who would much rather be with men than with women. It’s a common thing across all demographics, all countries, all societies, all across time. I truly believe the Western societies that separated men who loved men from the rest of men, labeled them, told them they weren’t really real men, have done a terrible disservice to homosexual men. All that denigration towards us should have never happened, we should not have been separated from other men. And straight leaning men should never have been taught all the hatred and fear that they were, what purpose did it ever serve? That is just my two-cents worth on this subject, for what it’s worth.
Xzamilloh
The man’s dead and was a murderer… you’d think at least one of those things would render this topic moot.
Donston
It was brought up in a documentary where his lawyer and ex gf spoke on it. So, for once it’s a valid discussion here. And people are always trying to peice together the mind of a crazy person or seemingly crazy person, especially one who seemed to “have it all” like Aaron. We don’t really know what was going on in that man’s mind, but I don’t like how so many “queer” people try to detach themselves from the overt bad seeds and choose not to look at bigger pictures or try to blame everything on a “close-minded society”. We keep hearing and seeing too much stuff like this (though maybe not always to this extreme) to not at least have it open conversation about healthily coping with abuse/assualt, the mental and ego damages of the closet, and contending with internalized homophobia/self-loathing/”self-confusion”. Although, as mentioned, Aaron clearly had a handful of issues.
marinetti
Denying his brain oxygen was a good move by him
tham
I’d have sex with him…dirty dirty sex.
And if he didn’t have all that brain damage…he’d probably would have made a decent boyfriend.
Even with the brain damage, he’s better than half the people who go to Rage.
GayEGO
No surprise here, his spouse is uneducated about us and I have several gay friends who got married because they were brought up as I was that we were supposed to get married and have a family. I decided not to get married because I knew that I was attracted to guys and I had no attraction to females. I went into the Navy and wala! The Navy brought me out, but I kept my personal life out of the Navy so I was honorably discharged after 4 years. By then I had met my lifetime partner and we are married.
Kenney G
TRUE! My cousin married a woman just to please his mother, but that never stopped him from seeking men
Kenney G
well sometimes the closet door doesn’t close. something will slip out. All gay men don’t look like Rupaul in drag
pscheck2
As one poster stated: he is dead Anything said or speculated about him is a moot point! I’ll add my two cents: There are several NFL players living in the surreal world of a ‘closeted’ athlete! Some want to come out but the fear of losing it all is too great! A couple of them are married and a few use paid ‘beards’ to do the PDA thing , arranged for them by the PR team of their franchise! All of this ‘maneuvering’ is done to keep the money flowing in ( dare I say millions?) and to maintain the status quo (i.e., family, friends, buddies and fans) so he can lead a normal life and not be marginalized to a friendly but much smaller community!