In a two-part interview with “Dr. Phil” set to air Monday and Tuesday, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez opened up about her fiancée, Aaron Hernandez, and the questions that still surround his life and death.
Two topics discussed in the interview were Hernandez’s questionable associates and his possible gang ties. From an excerpt released Monday morning:
Dr. Phil McGraw: “There’s been so much said that there was a parallel lifestyle; that on the one hand, his teammates talk about him as being such a team player, and so supportive and speak of him as being a very dedicated athlete that was such a part of such an iconic franchise. But then, yet, he had relationships with those that were less than desirable. What do you say about that?”
Jenkins-Hernandez: “He didn’t have the best choice in some friends but that didn’t make him a bad person.”
McGraw: “Was he a gang member?”
Jenkins-Hernandez: “Not to my knowledge.”
McGraw: “Was your relationship such that you had the right to say what you thought? Could you step up and say, ‘I don’t think you ought to be hanging with those people and I don’t think you ought to be bringing them into our home’?”
Jenkins-Hernandez: “I pick and choose my battles, and there’s some things that I pressed on and some things I didn’t.”
Hernandez committed suicide last month in his cell at Souza-Baranowksi Correctional Center. The former New England Patriots tight end was serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd — a conviction that has since been vacated.
Jenkins-Hernandez doesn’t believe her fiancée should have been found guilty in the first place.
“I’ve said it over and over,” she told McGraw. “He may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I don’t think that what is said to be out there is actually accurate.”
Thumbnail photo via The Sun Chronicle/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports
