Aaron Hernandez tearfully told his mother that he was gay in a heated exchange during one of the family’s prison visits to the convicted football star, his brother shared.
Jonathan Hernandez shared in an interview with Dr. Oz that his troubled brother and mother had been bickering when Aaron stressed to her that she was going to die while never knowing her son.
‘Then all of a sudden they have this conversation and they’re both flooded with tears across from each other,’ Jonathan continued.
‘The weight of what’s on my brother is being expressed and for a mother to be looking at it across from the scratched glass in the zone. Seeing your son who you would have never anticipated being in this situation.’
Jonathan Hernandez shared in an interview with Dr. Oz that his troubled brother and mother had been bickering when the athlete shared about his sexuality
‘Then all of a sudden they have this conversation and they’re both flooded with tears across from each other,’ Jonathan continued. Terri and Jonathan Hernandez in court in 2014
Dr. Oz did ask if Hernandez’s sexuality could have played a motive in the killing of Odin Lloyd in 2013, a theory that has increased in popularity following the Netflix documentary.
‘That’s one of the questions and, you know, head scratches that they still have regarding really this entire case,’ Jonathan said in the interview, airing January 30. ‘You look at everything. There’s just so many questions regarding everything. And, for me to sit here and say it was this or that, I can’t say. All you can do is look at the evidence that was provided.’
Aaron Hernandez’s brother cried as he recalled hearing his late sibling’s voice again in the recent Netflix documentary about him which made him feel like he was ‘alive’ again.
Dr. Oz did ask if Hernandez’s sexuality could have played a motive in the killing of Odin Lloyd in 2013, a theory that has increased in popularity following the Netflix documentary. Jonathan stressed that he could not say
‘They have snippets of my brother’s voice which I think is so powerful. At least to me…[it] is something that is hard to deal with but also beautiful , as conflicting as that is, because there’s limited experiences where you hear that,’ he said in the interview.
‘To hear his voice…it was like he was alive. It was his voice that was powerful.
‘I say powerful because my brother did learn through this situation. There were relationships, that were portrayed in the Netflix documentary that were crushed, [that] were mended,’ Jonathan said.
Jonathan Hernandez broke down in tears as he spoke about his late brother Aaron in an upcoming episode of Dr. Oz that will air on Thursday
His full interview with Dr. Oz will air on Thursday.
Jonathan and his brother were close growing up.
He was not interviewed for the Netflix movie and it is unclear if he participated in the production of it.
His brother’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, turned down producers. She said on Wednesday that she was offered money to appear in it but declined.
Jonathan wrote a book about his brother’s meteoric rise to NFL stardom and his spectacular fall from grace after his suicide in 2017.
He has claimed in past interviews that Aaron confided in him about his bisexuality and told him he’d had secret relationships with men.
The two brothers remained close throughout Aaron’s NFL career and legal troubles
Aaron and his brother, who is also known as DJ, before the former’s suicide in 2017
Shayanna Jenkins, Aaron Hernandez’s fiancee, said she still believes he is innocent of the three murders he was accused of in an interview on Wednesday morning
In a previous Dr. Oz interview, Jonathan also claimed his brother had been sexually abused as a child, but did not say who his abuser was.
He said they both had also had difficult relationships with their father, who they worshiped but who he said became violent with them when he drank.
Throughout his criminal trials, Aaron’s relationship with his mother became frayed – something that is explored through the Netflix documentary.
Dr. Oz will air at 1pm on Thursday. Check your local listings to find out where to watch.
Hernandez had been acquitted in the double murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado and he was appealing his conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd when he killed himself in his Massachusetts prison cell in 2017.
He had an advanced stage of CTE which causes brain damage and is common among NFL players.
‘It’s not shameful and I don’t think anybody should feel shameful on who they are inside, regardless of who they love. I think it’s a beautiful thing. I just wish I was able to tell him that,’ Jenkins-Hernandez said. Shayanna and Aaron Hernandez pictured together above
Jenkins says she believes he was innocent of all three murders and that she would never have left him despite the legal saga which encircled them and had ripped him away from his other relatives.
‘Yes I of course I do (think he’s innocent). ‘I’d be a cold person to leave someone that had nobody at all,’ she said.
She also addressed her late fiance’s sexuality. Since his death, it has emerged Hernandez was having an affair with another male inmate.
In the new Netflix documentary, other men – including years long friends – said they too had sexual contact with him.
Jenkins said she was unaware of his bisexuality but that she wished he had confided in her about it because it is ‘not shameful’.
She also abhorred Netflix for making a movie which focused largely on his sexuality, saying it was inappropriate because he is not here to discuss it himself.
”You can’t describe someone’s sexuality without them being here although I’ve had a child with Aaron, I still cant tell you how he was feeling inside. No one can.
‘If he did feel that way, or, if he felt the urge, I wish that I was told.
‘I would not have loved him any differently, I would have understood.’