Late former NFL player Aaron Hernandez\u2019s brother Jonathan spoke out in an interview with WBZ about his brother\u2019s secrets and his sexual orientation. Aaron Hernandez, who was convicted of murdering Odin Lloyd in 2013, killed himself in his prison cell in 2017.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Hernandez, who is publishing a book called The Truth About Aaron<\/em>, told WBZ that when Aaron Hernandez was 6 years old, he was sexually abused by an older boy<\/a>, but never told anybody. Jonathan also said his father didn\u2019t approve of homosexuality and so Aaron kept another secret: \u201cYou could kind of see what, you know, his conflicts were and what he was struggling with, and it\u2019s, you know, his sexuality \u2026 and accepting himself.\u201d<\/p>\n Hernandez\u2019s gay<\/a> high school lover Dennis SanSoucie spoke out about their relationship in a recent profile in the\u00a0Boston Globe<\/em>.<\/p>\n SanSoucie\u00a0told the paper<\/a>\u00a0that his relationship with Hernandez began in middle school and continued through high school. Their parents had known each other. SanSoucie\u2019s father Tim had once been on the receiving end of a punch from Hernandez\u2019s father when Tim was coaching their sons\u2019 youth tackle football team.<\/p>\n In high school Dennis SanSoucie and Aaron Hernandez had become something of a phenomenon on the football team. SanSoucie was the quarterback and Hernandez broke a Connecticut high school record by catching 67 passes from SanSoucie.<\/p>\n SanSoucie told the\u00a0Globe<\/em>\u00a0that they got high on marijuana often, and strove to hide their relationship: \u201cMe and him were very much into trying to hide what we were doing. We didn\u2019t want people to know.\u201d<\/p>\n The profile also revealed that Hernandez\u2019s family, particularly his father, was highly homophobic, and objected when Aaron came home one day as a young student and said he wanted to be a cheerleader.<\/p>\n \u2018Faggot\u2019 was used all the time in our house,\u201d said Hernandez\u2019s brother Jonathan. \u201cAll the time. Standing. Talking. Acting. Looking. It was the furthest thing my father wanted you to even look like in our household. This was not acceptable to him.\u201d<\/p>\n SanSoucie is now an out gay<\/a> man<\/a>, according to the profile, and\u00a0 believes Hernandez would be proud of him for talking about their relationship:\u00a0\u201cI really truly feel in my heart I got the thumbs-up from him.\u201d<\/p>\n Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, Hernandez\u2019s fiancee,\u00a0wrote about rumors he was gay<\/a>\u00a0in the foreword to a book published in August by defense attorney Jose Baez.<\/p>\n Wrote Jenkins-Hernandez,\u00a0via the\u00a0Boston Herald<\/em><\/a>: \u201cThere has been much speculation about Aaron\u2019s sexuality since his death. I can say this: Aaron was very much a man<\/a> to me. I saw no indication that he was gay<\/a> or homosexual.\u00a0I wish I had known how he felt, just so we could have talked about it. I wouldn\u2019t have disowned him. I would have been supportive.\u00a0I can\u2019t fault him if he was feeling that way. When you love someone so much you just want to be there to support them. The fact that he felt he couldn\u2019t come out to me or he couldn\u2019t tell me these things hurts, because we had that bond. I\u2019ve accepted that he may have been the way he was said to be, or that it may not be true. Regardless, I won\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n In an Oxygen network special which aired in March,\u00a0Aaron Hernandez Uncovered,\u00a0<\/em>defense attorney George Leontire\u00a0said the former NFL player was tortured over the fact he was gay<\/a>,<\/p>\n Said Leontire:\u00a0\u201cAaron and I talked about his sexuality. This man<\/a> clearly was gay<\/a>.\u00a0[He] acknowledged it. Acknowledged the immense pain that it caused him\u2026I think that he also came out of a culture that was so negative about gay<\/a> people that he exhibited some self-hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n