Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter spoke out in defense of his fiancée, Leanna Lenee, after fans criticized her behavior on social media. Hunter, 21, told viewers on Twitch that his fiancée cried herself to sleep and drank an “odee amount” — slang for “extreme” or “a lot” — of alcohol following the backlash, which started after the Colorado Buffaloes star won the prestigious college football award on Saturday, Dec. 14.
“You know the hurt when you just cry yourself to sleep,” Hunter said during his Twitch stream on a day later, adding that Lenee was “asleep” and he didn’t want her to “go to sleep sad” after drinking so much. Fans first started questioning Lenee after video from the Heisman ceremony showed Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders leaning over to Lenee to tell her to stand up after Hunter’s name was called.
The backlash then grew when another video showed Hunter taking photos with fans at a pop-up event in New York City after the Heisman ceremony as Lenee was seated and appeared to be frustrated with how long Hunter was spending with fans. “What do you want me to do…I’ll just sit here then,” Lenee appeared to say in the video shared by a fan.
But Hunter quickly squashed that narrative in his Twitch stream, saying that Lenee’s behavior was justified and that she was helping keep his family occupied while he spent time with fans. “That’s why she said she’s gonna stay there, some of them wanted to go back to the hotel, some of them didn’t,” Hunter explained during the stream. “I know what I got. I know my girl. My girl’s been with me for five years,” Hunter said. “Y’all are just now starting to talk about me and just now starting to be with me. Come on, man.”
Hunter also warned the “clickbait pages” that they “better stop” posting content that suggests trouble for the couple or “something bad gonna happen,” Hunter said. “Y’all hate on me and then y’all go hate on my girl. I feel the same pain that she feel,” Hunter said. “We’re unseperable [sic], we’re with each other. If she hurting, of course I’m going to be hurting.”
The backlash comes just one week after Hunter defended Lenee when comedian Godfrey said “something ain’t right” with her attitude based on a video in which Lenee said Hunter wasn’t “her type” before they started dating. “You know her? No, so don’t speak on my relationship you old ash move on with your life,” Hunter wrote in the comments of Godfrey’s video.
Hunter won the Heisman Trophy, given to the top player in college football every year, during the annual ceremony at the Lincoln Center in New York City on Dec. 14. During his acceptance speech, the football star became particularly emotional while shouting out his father, Travis Hunter Sr. “I want to say something to my father. He’s not here. But I know you’re watching on TV,” he said, tearfully.
“Dad, I love you. All the stuff you went through, man. Now, look at your oldest son. I did it for you, man. All the times that you ain’t get to see me, and the times that you came to see my games. From probably two games in high school to seeing me on TV every weekend and coming to see me, man, that means so much to me.” “I know you wanted to be here and you can’t, but trust me, I got you,” he concluded. ”I’m bringing the trophy home. I love you.“
