Leanna Lenee is firing back at the haters — and it’s been brewing for a while.
The fiancée of Heisman Trophy winner and two-way Colorado star Travis Hunter came under scrutiny from fans for how she appeared to react during the weekend — and throughout the season.
Viewers of the Heisman ceremony took umbrage with Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders seemingly having to tell Lenee to stand up when Hunter was announced as the winner, and then again when a video surfaced of her looking upset as he interacted with what looked like fans as a pop-up event after winning.
“When his name was called, I instantly was going to get up — if you watch the video, his mom didn’t get up, so I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I don’t get up, I just sit here,’” she said in an emotional TikTok video Monday that lasted nearly eight minutes.
“As soon as I seen Travis get up, then I thought it was appropriate to stand up, greet him, congratulate him. But then, there was a camera right in front of Coach Prime and I knew they were going to film that moment and because of how people are online, I was like, I don’t want to be in that shot, so I sat down.
“I got out of the camera, purposefully, so they can have their moment. That’s all it was. No one told me to stand up, no one had to tell me to celebrate with him. I was just sitting there crying, I wanted to take it in — I was super excited for him. But I wanted the moment to be about him and his family.”
Lenee said she received permission from Hunter to air her grievances in the video after her fiancé took to Twitch to tell fans that she cried to herself to sleep in dealing with all the criticism.
herself to sleep following internet criticism. Travis Hunter/Instagram
“You ain’t never had no girl so why are y’all talking about me,” Hunter, a wide receiver and cornerback for the Buffaloes, said during a livestream. “Find someone else to talk about. … Go talk about your girl. Go find a girl. Go find a life. Stop worrying about what I got going on. I know what I got.”
“Y’all hate on me then you go hate on my girl,” he continued. “I feel the same thing that she feels. We’re inseparable. We’re with each other. If she’s hurting I’m hurting [and vice versa] … she’s still sleeping. She’s lump. You know when you’re hurt you just cry yourself to sleep and you be gone. She’s drunk OD amount tonight for no reason.”
Lenee, who got engaged to Hunter in February, explained that her drained state was the culmination of several instances throughout the season that painted her in an unflattering light — including one after Colorado’s win over Oklahoma State in which she was accused of being angry Hunter was talking to cheerleaders.
video on Monday. @leannalenee6/TikTok
“People thought I was upset with him celebrating with cheerleaders. I don’t know where that started, but that’s not what I said,” she said, adding that security wasn’t letting family onto the field to celebrate, and that she and Hunter had already interacted.
“The things that I see people make up is truly crazy because that’s not what happened. I just think people are finding every single little thing and making it something it’s not. Bird-brained individuals are just accepting what they see online.”
