The man who says he tricked Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o into falling for a fake woman he created online claims the hoax had “everything to do” with escaping from real life because he had been molested as a child.

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo spoke publicly for the first time in an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw for the “Dr. Phil Show,” the second part of which aired Friday.

The 22-year-old Tuiasosopo told McGraw he was repeatedly molested, beginning at age 12, by someone who was close to his father, a church pastor and youth minister.