In an interview that will debut next week on the syndicated Dr. Phil show, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez discusses the reaction to the news that her fiancée, Aaron Hernandez, had died in prison.
“I thought it was a hoax, that this was some cruel person playing a trick on me,” Jenkins-Hernandez said, via quotes distributed in advance by the show. “I felt like we were looking so bright. We were going up a ladder to a positive direction.”
Only five days before his death, a jury acquitted Hernandez in the killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. Lawyer Jose Baez, who secured the verdict in Hernandez’s favor, had expressed optimism that a conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd could be overturned, and that a second trial could result in a not guilty verdict.
The suicide note left for Jenkins-Hernandez included this line from Hernandez: “I told you what was coming indirectly.” But Jenkins-Hernandez seemed to disagree.
“Our last talk had nothing to do with suicidal thoughts,” she said.
The interview, in two parts, is scheduled to air on Monday and Tuesday, May 15 and 16.