The New York Post reports Jonathan Hernandez, brother of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, tells Dr. Oz that his brother came out to their mother during a tearful prison visit.
In his first TV appearance since the premiere of the Netflix true-crime documentary series Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, Jonathan says his brother told his mother, Terri Hernandez, he was gay prior to his 2017 suicide.
“He’s like, ‘Mom, you’re going to die never knowing your son,’” Hernandez says in the interview scheduled to air today.
“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.”
Putting the moment in context, Jonathan adds, “Here’s the weight of what’s on my brother being expressed, and for a mother to be looking at it across from the scratched glass.”
One of the questions Killer Inside explores is whether the fear that kept Aaron’s sexuality hidden might have been a driving force for killing his former friend Odin Lloyd in 2013. Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the crime at the time of his death.
Dr. Oz asks Jonathan his thoughts on a possible motive during the interview.
“That’s one of the questions and, you know, head-scratchers that they still have regarding really this entire case,” says the brother.
“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.”
In another segment, Dr. Oz asks how Hernandez’s father Dennis (who died in 2006) might have responded to Aaron sharing he had ‘conflicting thoughts’ on his sexuality.
“I don’t know if he would have been able to finish his sentence,” Jonathan said. “My dad would have thought he could beat that out of him.”
https://youtu.be/FIe6M1LrXg4
Earlier this week, Aaron’s former fiancee said she didn’t know if he was gay.
“If he did feel that way, or if he felt the urge, I wish that I was told,” Shayanna Jenkins told Good Morning America. “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.”
