Travis Hunter's fiancee breaks her silence on Heisman backlash in emotional video
Leanna Lenee, the fiancée of Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, is defending herself and explaining what truly happened after a weekend where she was at the center of multiple 'controversies'.
Over the past few weeks, interest in Lenee has been particularly high after a series of perceived slights against Hunter - who was given the Heisman Trophy over the weekend as the top player in college football.
In a nearly eight-minute long video posted to her TikTok account, which has received over 1.7million views, Lenee addressed multiple issues that have popped up over the past few weeks: the claim that Travis wasn't her type, an incident after the Oklahoma State game where people thought the couple was arguing, the incident at an Adidas store in New York City, and at the Heisman ceremony itself.
'Okay, I'm going to be addressing all this stuff online because I'm tired, emotionally and mentally, of seeing people try to make me out to be a person that I am not,' Lenee began. 'But what's a testimony, without a test of faith.'
Later in the video, she said, 'The things that I see people make up is truly crazy because it's not what happened. I just think people are just finding every single little thing and trying to make it something it's not. Then birdbrained individuals are just accepting what they see online.'
The first topic she tackled was a story about how she left Hunter in her DMs for months and that he wasn't her 'type'.
Travis Hunter's fiancee, Leanna Lenee, set the record straight on a number of controversies
Lenee explained the reason why she didn't respond to his message was that Hunter was dating someone at the time.
'Her name was in his bio, so I instantly knew he had a partner,' Lenee explained. 'So I exited the message, and he sat there until he was single. I don't do home wrecking. I'm not a side piece. I don't stand for any of those things. I support women, so I would never do that to another woman because I would never want it done to me. So I ignored him until he was single. That's the real reason he sat in my DM.'
As for the comment about her 'type', she explained that she does not have 'a physical type' and that she's previously dated men of different races and professions or interests. She also explained that she hadn't ever dated someone younger than her, until she started dating Travis.
'I don't care about what people look like or what they can give me. I date people for who they are as a person, how they honor God, and how they treat the people around them, and Travis is all the above,' Lenee said.
'So when I said he wasn't my type, I meant because he was younger than me. I had never dated no one younger than me, and he had cheated on his girlfriend. I don't know if your type is cheaters, but mine isn't. So no, he wasn't my type at first off of those two things.
'But that didn't discredit the fact that I was attracted to him. That's obviously why I gave him a chance. Then I learned he truly is a phenomenal and wonderful human being, and that's why we're together, and that's why we're still together to this day.'
Lenee moved on to the perceived story that she was angry with Hunter for talking to cheerleaders after the Oklahoma State game. According to Lenee, Hunter hadn't spoken to any cheerleaders and that the real reason why she was mad was because security guards were not letting family members of the team down to the field as is typical.
Lenee and Hunter prior to Saturday evening's Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City
Lenee said that this incident - after a game vs Oklahoma State - was because a security guard prevented her and other family members of the Buffaloes from going onto the field
She said there were 'thousands' of security guards holding people back and that she had gotten into an argument with one guard trying to explain that she was allowed to go onto the field to see Hunter.
'When I finally got down to the field, that's when I told Travis. He had already seen it. I had already congratulated him,' Lenee revealed. 'We had already spoke, got on the field. I was upset because I had just finished arguing with somebody.
'And then, what y'all don't see after five second clip, is right after that, I let it go. I was like, You know what? I celebrate. We took pictures, we were with our families and then we went to this meet-and-greet.'
Next, Lenee explained what had happened at an Adidas store in New York City this past weekend - after video surfaced of her seemingly upset that Hunter was taking pictures with female fans, in which she appeared to say 'What do you want me to do? Sit here?'
Lenee explained that those were not her words and that she was asking what the next plans were - with Hunter set to go to a Heisman ceremony rehearsal. She also said that she had no problem with the fans that took pictures with him - and that the video captured his interaction with Adidas employees, not fans.
'He had finished meeting with the fans. I was there the entire time taking pictures, talking to them, everything,' she said. 'The girls that were there, they were the Adidas. They worked for Adidas. So we were taking pictures for a social post. That's who those people were. I wasn't annoyed with no fans at all. I never annoyed with fans.'
Which brings us to the actual Heisman ceremony itself, where Hunter beat out Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty for the sport's top honor.
Lenee said that in this moment, she wasn't mad at Hunter for taking photos with a woman - saying that woman worked for Adidas and that she wanted to know what their plans were
Lenee and Hunter have been together for five years and are set to be married next year
Video surfaced which appeared to show that Lenee needed encouragement from Colorado coach Deion Sanders to stand up and celebrate when Hunter won the award.
'This is making me so mad because anyone who knows me knows I support Travis in every win, everything he does, because I truly, truly love that man,' Lenee began in her address of that moment.
'He is perfect in my eyes. When his name was called, I instantly was going to... If you watch the video, you can see me like [makes gesture to move forward out of seat]... But his mom didn't get up. So I was like, "Oh, maybe I don't get up. Maybe I just sit here with her." So I sat there and then you all said, "Coach Prime had to tell me to get up." No, he didn't. He said, "Go get him. Go get your man." But he didn't have to do that because I was going to do that anyways.
'As soon as I seen Travis get up, then I thought it was appropriate to stand up, greet him, congratulate him. But then there was a camera right in front of Coach Prime, and I knew they were going to film that moment. And because of how people are online, I was like, "I don't want to be in that shot, so I'm going to sit down." So I tried to sit down. So I'm not in the camera while I'm crying.
'People are going to go, "Oh, why is she crying?" You know, stuff like that. And so I got out of the camera purposefully so they can have their moment. That's all it was. No one told me to stand up. No one had to tell me to celebrate with him. I was just sitting there crying. I wanted to take it in myself, too.
'I was super excited for him, but I wanted the moment to be about him and his family. And that's another thing. People are like, "why did he sit next to her?" Why was his mom... We had assigned seats. We had assigned seats. I didn't have a choice where I sat. They are obviously going to put someone and their partner together. So I had the seat right next to him because that was my assigned seat. I didn't have a choice.
'And then the hugging thing. Travis came and hugged me because he just went down the line. I was first in line, then his mom, then Coach Prime. He came straight to me first. I didn't tell him to do that. I didn't have to tell him to do anything. He's a grown man. He can do what he wants.'
On a Twitch stream, Hunter told his fans to back off of their abuse of Lenee on social media
Lenee then concluded the video: 'But yeah, everyone is making this crazy, crazy narrative in their head, so I just wanted to clear it up. And that is the truth. That's what happens in all those videos. And I will not be addressing this again. I didn't want to address it, but here we are.'
The video comes in the aftermath of Hunter going on a Twitch stream and explaining that Lenee had gotten drunk and cried herself after all of the negative criticism and abuse she had received online.
Hunter told people to stop targeting her, specifically calling out 'clickbait' pages, social media accounts, and websites.
'Clickbait pages stop, y'all better stop I'm telling y'all. Something bad is gonna happen to y'all [if you] keep doing that. Y'all better stop that. I ain't playing,' he said.
'Y'all hate on me then you go hate on my girl,' the two-way star continued. 'I feel the same thing that she feels. We're inseparable. We're with each other. If she's hurting, I'm hurting.'
Hunter and Lenee have been dating for five years, according to the football star. They are set to be married next year.
