Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez will appear on the popular daytime television program “Dr. Phil” next week in her first interview since her fiancé, former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, committed suicide in his jail cell last month.
The two-part interview will touch on Hernandez’s “mysterious jail cell death, rumors about his purported secret romantic life, and if (Jenkins-Hernandez) thinks he killed himself so that she could collect millions of dollars,” according to a news release. Part 1 will air Monday, with Part 2 following on Tuesday.
In a published excerpt from her sit-down with Dr. Phil McGraw, Jenkins-Hernandez said she initially believed Hernandez’s death was a “hoax.”
“That this was some cruel person playing a trick on me,” she said.
Jenkins-Hernandez also said the ex-NFL star did not discuss having any suicidal thoughts during their final phone conversation.
“I felt like we were looking so bright,” she said. “We were going up a ladder to a positive direction.”
Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd at the time of his death, but that conviction was vacated Tuesday in accordance with Massachusetts law. Because Hernandez died before his appeal could be heard, he technically now is considered not guilty in the eyes of the law thanks to a legal principle known as “abatement ab initio.”
It remains to be seen whether this development will force the Patriots to pay Hernandez’s family the $5.91 million in guaranteed money they withheld from him after his arrest in 2013.
Thumbnail photo via The Sun Chronicle/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports
