Aaron Hernandez‘s brother, Jonathan, says the convicted murderer and former NFL superstar told his mother he was gay during a prison visit prior to his 2017 suicide.
“He's like, ‘Mom, you're going yo die never knowing your son,' ” Jonathan Hernandez told The Dr. Oz Show, in his first interview since the release of the Netflix docuseries, Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez.
“And my mom being my mom, started mouthing with Aaron, and they started bickering back and forth, and all of a sudden they have this conversation, and they're both flooded with tears across from each other,” Jonathan Hernandez said, adding that “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.”
Earlier this week, Aaron Hernandez's fiancee said she does not know whether he was gay.
“If he did feel that way, or if he felt the urge, I wish that I was told,” Shayanna Jenkins told ABC News. “I wish that he would have told me because I wouldn't have loved him any differently. I would have understood. It's not shameful.”
Jonathan Hernandez told Dr. Oz he's unsure whether his brother's sexual orientation — and the perceived need to hide it or cover it up — was a factor in the 2015 murder of friend Odin Lloyd.
“That's one of the questions and, you know, head scratches that they still have regarding really this entire case,” Jonathan Hernandez said. “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.”
Jonathan Hernandez also responded to the hypothetical question of how their abusive father would have reacted if Aaron tried to come out to him.
“I don't know if he would have been able to finish his sentence,” he said. “I can't imagine him even being able to or my dad would have thought he could beat that out of him.”
Jonathan Hernandez's full Dr. Oz interview is scheduled to air Thursday afternoon.
