Manti Te’o Tells Katie Couric He’s Not Into Dudes, But Invisible Girls Are Totally Cool [VIDEO]

Manti Te'o sat down with Katie Couric to chat about his dead imaginary girlfriend, and she asked him what we're all thinking when we try to make sense of it: Dude, are you trying to cover up that you might be gay?

"Why wouldn't you want a real girlfriend?" Couric asked. "That you could spend real time with in person?"

Te'o replied, "This Lennay person ... there are so many similarities," he stammered. (Yeah, because when you make something up as you go along, you're free to mold it at your will. Much like my imaginary relationship with Gerard Butler.) "She was Polynesian, supposedly. She's Samoan, I'm Samoan. She loved her faith, and I'm Mormon -- as you know -- a lot about that."

He explained, "I found a lot of peace, a lot of comfort in that. Being able to talk to somebody who knows my standards and who knows my culture; they knew what's expected of me and I knew what was expected of her." (You didn't quite know that, Te'o.)

Then Couric came in with the big guns. "One of the many theories making the rounds is somehow that you created this whole scenario to cover up your sexuality. Are you gay?"

Te'o, who claimed to have a lengthy relationship with the fictional Kekua for a pretty long time with no sex or physical contact whatsoever, responded, "Far from it. Far from it."

Someone who may not be that far from it? The hoax creator Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who TMZ claims felt "intense emotions" for Te'o. Sources close to the scammer say that Tuiasosopo never had a physical relationship with anyone, male or female, and created a female online persona to "vent his feelings."

Rumor has it that Tuiasosopo used the female persona more than once, but that he only became emotionally to Te'o and left Te'o voicemails as Kekua using his own voice. (Remember, he auditioned for 'The Voice,' so he probably has some control there.) When Te'o played the voicemails for Couric, he said, "Sounds like a woman. Incredible talent to do."

Tuiasosopo blew his own cover on Dec. 6 because it was so hard for him to walk away from Te'o.

Listen to Lennay Kekua's Voicemails to Manti Te'o

See Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's Confession