“For me to sit here and say it was this or that, I can’t say. There was no behavior that made me think differently.” She added, “If he did feel that way or if he felt the urge, I wish that I — I was told… I would not have loved him any differently. "No one can.”
She said she was unaware that the late New England Patriots tight end was bisexual, adding that she “would not have loved him differently” if he had told her.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Jonathan Hernandez said he never was aware of his brother’s sexuality and when asked if it might have motivated the killing of his friend Odin Lloyd, he couldn't say for sure.
“That’s one of the questions and, you know, head-scratchers that they still have regarding really this entire case,” he said.
No one can.”
She adds, “If he did feel that way, or if he felt the urge, I wish that I was told. "And I wish that he -- you know, he would've told me 'cause I wouldn't -- I would not have loved him any differently. There was no behavior that made me think differently."
She wishes that if Hernandez had been hiding his sexuality, he would have come to her.
"If he did feel that way or if he felt the urge, I wish that I -- I was told," said Jenkins-Hernandez.
Nearly a decade after his trial, the show seems to implicate that the New England Patriots tight end might have been gay. I just wish I was able to tell him that.”
His brother DJ “Jonathan” Hernandez talked to Dr. Oz about how his brother might have potentially came out as gay to his mother before his suicide. No one can."
The Netflix docuseries "Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez," which was released in January, spoke to a high school teammate and friend of Hernandez, Dennis Sansoucie, who said the two engaged in a sexual relationship while in high school.
Jenkins-Hernandez said that she knew of Sansoucie, but doesn't know him well and he wasn't very involved in Hernandez's adult life.
However, she said through tears, "You start to feel for people that may be hiding inside how they really feel.
American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez is available to stream on Hulu and airs on FX on Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available. “You can’t describe someone’s sexuality without them being here,” she says. “Then, all of a sudden, they have this conversation, and they’re both flooded with tears across from each other.”
DJ also stated that since it all happened during a prison visit, their mother’s heart was shattered because she could do nothing but witness Aaron deal with what seemed like the weight of the world on his shoulders.
It’s not shameful and I don’t think anybody should feel shameful of who they are inside, regardless of who they love. As if this is not enough, she also said in an interview with ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ that she doesn’t really like answering any questions about this matter because Aaron himself is not there.
“You can’t describe someone’s sexuality without them being here,” Shayanna said.
“Although I have had a child with Aaron, I still can’t tell you what he was feeling inside; no one can. “Although I’ve had a child with Aaron, I still can’t tell you how he was feeling inside. Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential counseling.
Fiancee of late Aaron Hernandez speaks out on his sexuality after docuseries
The fiancee of the late Aaron Hernandez is speaking out for the first time since the release of a new Netflix docuseries on the life of the football-star turned-convicted killer, including rumors about his sexuality.
In a sit-down interview with ABC News' Amy Robach that will air Wednesday on "Good Morning America," Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez said that while Hernandez did not express to her in any way he may have been gay or bisexual, if he did, she "would not have loved him any differently."
Hernandez, a former New England Patriots tight end, was found guilty of murder in April 2015 for the killing of Odin Lloyd, the 27-year-old fiance of Jenkins-Hernandez' sister, who was found shot to death in a suburb of Boston about two years earlier.
It’s not shameful and I don’t think anybody should be ashamed of who they are inside, regardless of who they love. Furthermore, it’s imperative to note that even Shayanna Jenkins has since come forward to assert she never cared much about her late partner’s sexuality — she claims she would have stood by him either way because what mattered to her was his caring, kind, loving soul.
“[Aaron’s] like, ‘Mom, you’re going die never knowing your son,'” he told Dr. Oz in 2020. I think that he also came out of a culture that was so negative about gay people that he exhibited some self-hatred.”
Days before his death, investigative journalist Michelle McPhee joked with friends Kirk Minihane and Gerry Callahan on the radio show that Aaron was “tight end on and off the field,” adding, “then he became a wide receiver.” The trio riffed on jokes about his sexuality, and Michelly McPhee wrote a subsequent piece on Newsweek, titled “Aaron Hernandez’s Sex Life Probed as Murder Motive” where she denotes that he allegedly had a relationship with a male former high school classmate and that his suicide note was written to his prison boyfriend (which was debunked, since it was written to his attorney).
[He was] certainly a man to me. I think it's a beautiful thing, I just wish I was able to tell him that."
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Was Aaron Hernandez Gay or Bisexual?
It was back in 2013 when everything turned upside down for NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez as he was arrested for the homicide of his friend and fiancée’s sister’s boyfriend, Odin Lloyd.