Katie Couric to interview Manti Te'o and his parents

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NEW YORK, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Katie Couric will interview Manti Te'o and his parents about what they've called an elaborate fake-girlfriend hoax, producers of the U.S. show "Katie" said.

Couric will sit down with the Notre Dame star and Brian and Ottilia Te'o, who are speaking out for the first time about the headline-making prank. Their conversation will be broadcast on Couric's syndicated daytime program Thursday.

The football player said he was the victim of a hoax after it was revealed his girlfriend never existed and her death was faked.

"The story has raised a cloud of questions about who was involved, why the hoax was perpetrated and whether Te'o, runner-up for the Heisman Trophy this season, himself made up the story," "Katie" producers said in a news release Sunday.

Te'o recently admitted to ESPN's Jeremy Schaap he made a few mistakes regarding the incident, including telling his father he met Lennay Kekua in Hawaii, even though his attempt to meet her actually failed.

"Later retellings of that tale led to inconsistencies in media reports, Te'o said, adding that he never actually met Kekua in person," "Katie" producers noted in the release.

"Te'o added that he feared people would think it was crazy for him to be involved with someone that he never met, so, 'I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away.' Te'o told ESPN's Schaap that he only learned for sure this week that he had been duped. Now he and his parents will give Couric the full story."