Who is Leanna Lenee?
Leanna Lenee, the fiancée of top NFL Draft prospect Travis Hunter, suffered severe scrutiny in the wake of her partner’s rising fame – for all the wrong reasons.
Amid the former Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver/cornerback’s college football success, Lenee found herself at the center of a number of controversies.
Her viral infamy peaked last December, following the 21-year-old football star’s Heisman Trophy win.
Many fans criticized 23-year-old Lenee for perceived slights against Hunter, including what they interpreted to be a slow reaction to his Heisman award.
Both Hunter and Lenee fired back at the shocking backlash with the pair even briefly deleting their Instagram profiles.
Here, ahead of Thursday night’s draft, DailyMail.com brings you everything you need to know about the future NFL WAG.
Leanna Lenee, the fiancée of top Draft prospect Travis Hunter, has suffered severe scrutiny
Hunter, who plays both CB and WR, is expected to be a top pick in April’s NFL Draft
Who is Leanna Lenee?
Leanna Lenee, 23, attended Kennesaw State University, graduating with her bachelor’s degree in 2022.
The couple are believed to have begun dating in 2022 after Hunter reached out to her on social media.
They announced their engagement in February 2024. Hunter popped the question with a dazzling ring featuring a diamond band.
They regularly make content together, sharing their own YouTube channel where they post videos from their engagement party weekend and more.
What was the Heisman controversy?
As Hunter was announced as the winner of the prestigious award, Lenee initially remained sitting while Hunter’s mother and Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders stood up.
She briefly stood and gave Hunter a hug after Sanders appeared to tap her, but promptly sat back down as Hunter continued embracing his group.
Fans took issue with what they perceived to be a slight, sparking horrific backlash on social media.
Hunter later revealed that Lenee had cried herself to sleep following the ceremony as she continued to be pelted with criticism.
‘She’s still sleeping, she’s slumped,’ the Heisman winner shared on a Twitch stream. ‘You know when you’re hurt but you just cry yourself to sleep and you just be gone? She drunk [sic], like, an OD amount tonight for no reason.’
Leanna Lenee has been dating Travis Hunter since 2022 and been engaged since 2024
Lenee sparked controversy following Hunter’s Heisman Trophy victory back in December
What were the other issues?
In the aftermath of his team’s 52-0 win over Oklahoma State Cowboys in late November, Lenee and Hunter appeared to get into some sort of argument – with Lenee seemingly rebuffing Hunter’s attempt to kiss her on the cheek.
And during the run up to the Heisman ceremony, Lenee appeared angry at Hunter as he took pictures with female fans at a planned event.
Lenee was seen seated just a few feet away from Hunter as he took snaps with a female fan, looking upset before asking him ‘What do you want me to do… I’ll just sit here then.’
Hunter then appears to suggest that she could leave if she felt like it, with the video catching him saying, ‘You could go to the H๏τel, you can walk around…’
A video also resurfaced in which Lenee said that Hunter was not her ‘type’ before they had started dating, leading to more vitriol from fans.
Fans had even begun to speculate if Lenee had been faithful to Hunter during their relationship.
How did Travis Hunter react?
Hunter defended Lenee immediately after the video from the fan event emerged.
‘When we was sitting down and I was at my pop-up shop, we was talking about my family,’ he said in some sort of online stream.
‘What was they gon’ do while I was in there signing stuff. I had all my family there, and that’s why she said she gon’ stay there, so they can get stuff… [and] have fun there. Some of them wanted to go back to the H๏τel, some of them didn’t.’
He added: ‘I know what I got, I know my girl. My girl been with me for five years, y’all are just now starting to talk about me and just now starting to be with me.’
As speculation surrounding his fiancée continued to swirl in late December, Hunter appeared to delete Instagram on December 23. His profile has since become reactivated.
In the aftermath of his team’s 52-0 win over Oklahoma State Cowboys in late November, Lenee and Hunter appeared to get into some sort of argument
Lenee was seen seated just a few feet away from Hunter as he took snaps with a female fan, looking upset
How did Leanna Lenee react?
In a nearly eight-minute long video posted to her TikTok account, which has received over 1.7million views, Lenee addressed the multiple issues.
‘Okay, I’m going to be addressing all this stuff online because I’m tired, emotionally and mentally, of seeing people try to make me out to be a person that I am not,’ Lenee began. ‘But what’s a testimony, without a test of faith.’
Later in the video, she said, ‘The things that I see people make up is truly crazy because it’s not what happened. I just think people are just finding every single little thing and trying to make it something it’s not. Then birdbrained individuals are just accepting what they see online.’
The first topic she tackled was a story about how she left Hunter in her DMs for months and that he wasn’t her ‘type’.
Lenee explained the reason why she didn’t respond to his message was that Hunter was dating someone at the time.
‘Her name was in his bio, so I instantly knew he had a partner,’ Lenee explained. ‘So I exited the message, and he sat there until he was single. I don’t do home wrecking. I’m not a side piece. I don’t stand for any of those things. I support women, so I would never do that to another woman because I would never want it done to me. So I ignored him until he was single. That’s the real reason he sat in my DM.’
As for the comment about her ‘type’, she explained that she does not have ‘a physical type’ and that she’s previously dated men of different races and professions or interests. She also explained that she hadn’t ever dated someone younger than her, until she started dating Travis.
