Dr. Phil keeps viewers waiting for more from Shayanna
The fiancee of Aaron Hernandez told “Dr. Phil” yesterday that she doesn’t think the onetime Patriots superstar killed himself.
But if you want Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez’s thoughts on the more salacious rumors concerning Hernandez, such as speculation he killed himself to ensure she could collect $6.5 million or — Dr. Phil McGraw’s favorite, given the number of times he teased it over the course of the hour — whether Hernandez was leading a gay double life — you have to tune in to part two of the exclusive interview today.
Taped May 9, the day Hernandez’s conviction for the murder of his friend Odin Lloyd was vacated, Shayanna told McGraw that Hernandez never gave any indication of wanting to take his own life.
“It’s just not the Aaron that I know,” she said, speaking privately to McGraw, instead of in front of the usual studio audience.
She said she found the timing of Hernandez’s suicide suspect because just days earlier he had been acquitted of the murders of Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreu and Safiro Teixeira Furtado.
“I think that if he would have done something like this, it would have been at his worst, and I felt like we were — it was looking so bright. We were going up a ladder, in a sense, to a positive direction,” Shayanna said.
Breaking up in tears, she said that when she was notified of Hernandez’s death April 19 by a prison official, she thought someone was playing a cruel prank on her.
As for Hernandez’s last words to her, in a telephone call the previous night, Shayanna said, “I remember him saying, ‘ Babe, I’ve got to go. They’re shutting the doors,’ and I honestly don’t think we said ‘I love you’ to each other. That was it.”
The banality of the conversation left her doubting his reported actions later. But McGraw, in a manner familiar to viewers, pushed the issue.
“You don’t accidentally wrap something around your neck and get it caught on your bunk and hang yourself,” he said. “This isn’t a ‘Whoops! I fell and hit my head.’ Something went on here.”
“I think until we can get in there and do our own investigation,” Shayanna responded, “and I actually, guess, trust where these answers are coming from, maybe I can have some comfort in the truth.”
The note Hernandez left for her was “of love” but she also said she thought it wasn’t intimate enough. He addressed her as Shay and not “Babe” or “Bae” as was his custom.
As for the parenthetical comment, “you’re rich,” she took that to mean in love.
And as for what Shayanna thinks about a purported payday or Hernandez’s alleged prison boyfriend, McGraw is saving that for the conclusion today at 3 p.m.
It’s May sweeps and he has to eat, too.