Former college football star Manti Te’o and his wife, Jovi Nicole Te’o, are now proud parents of two! On Monday, Jan. 16, Jovi Nicole announced on Instagram that the couple’s second child, a baby boy named Kyro Aumua Te’o, had arrived. He joins his big sister, Hiro, who’s 17 months old.
“Welcome my little King,” Jovi Nicole captioned two photos from the hospital taken shortly after Kyro’s birth. “We’ve all been waiting for you!” Jovi Nicole also shared that her little one weighed in at 8 lbs. and 13 oz. and was 22 inches long. Manti commented on the post, writing, “Love you babe!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!!”
Little Kyro arrived just three days after Jovi Nicole celebrated turning 35. Her husband, a former Notre Dame football player who went on to play in the NFL for eight seasons, shared a sweet tribute post to her on Instagram on her special day. “Happy birthday to the Queen,” he captioned a pic of Jovi holding Hiro. “The mother of my children. My best friend. My partner in life and beyond. We are so grateful for you . . . I am so grateful for you. So excited for what’s ahead of you this year. More blessings. More life. This is just the beginning. I love you. Happy birthday @jovi.nicole.”
Manti and Jovi Nicole got married in La Jolla, CA, in September 2020. Before they met, the college football star’s love life became a hot topic in 2012 when he was catfished online and subsequently believed that his girlfriend at the time, Lennay Kekua, who never existed, had died of leukemia. The strange but true story was told in Netflix’s two-part 2022 sports documentary “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist.”
After the documentary aired, Manti thanked viewers for the outpouring of support he received in an emotional video posted on Instagram. “I just want to come on here real quick just to give a heartfelt thank you to everybody that has come through and has shown so much love to me and my family, for your messages, for your comments,” he said. “I’m trying to go through all of them, and it’s been so amazing to me to hear the battles that we’re all facing, the challenges that we’re facing in our lives at this time, and how the documentary has given some of us hope, the extra push just to keep going.”
These days Manti is focused on his family, which just got a little bit bigger thanks to baby Kyro’s arrival.