Aaron Hernandez's Fiancée Speaks Out for First Time After Release of Netflix Documentary
Aaron Hernandez‘s former fiancée Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez is speaking out after the release of the documentary Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez earlier this week.
On Thursday, Jenkins-Hernandez, 30, appeared to address the new Netflix three-part documentary in a message on Instagram. The documentary chronicles Hernandez’s life, leading up to his arrest and suicide in prison in 2017.
“I wanted to let all of you sweet sweet souls know I have tried to read every message sent on IG and through email (positive and negative),” she wrote. “The amount of support and positive energy is again unreal! I’m sure you will all understand how imperative it is to take some time away from social media.”
The mother of two captioned the post with the hashtag “#stayhumble.”
One day earlier, on the date of the documentary’s release, Jenkins-Hernandez had shared an inspirational quote on Instagram.
“Never forget how far you’ve come,” the quote read. “Everything you have gotten through. All the times you have pushed on even when you felt you couldn’t. All the mornings you got out of bed no matter how hard it was. All the times you wanted to give up but you got through another day. Never forget how much strength you have developed along the way.”
A post shared by Shay (@shayjhernandez) on Jan 16, 2020 at 8:57am PST
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A post shared by Shay (@shayjhernandez) on Jan 14, 2020 at 11:33am PST
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Hernandez and Jenkins-Hernandez were together for several years before his legal troubles. Hernandez, a former tight end for the New England Patriots, was arrested in 2013 for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a man dating Jenkins-Hernandez’s sister. As he awaited trial, he was charged with the fatal drive-by shootings of Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreu and Safiro Teixeira Furtado.
He was convicted of Lloyd’s murder and sentenced to life in prison; he was acquitted of the double homicide in April 2017 and days later was found dead in his prison cell after hanging himself with a bedsheet. He was 27.
The former football player is the father of Jenkins-Hernandez’s eldest daughter, Avielle, whom they welcomed in 2012. In November of that year, the two also became engaged, although they never married.
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The Netflix documentary, which was released on Wednesday, provides new alleged details about Hernandez’s life, and also deals with the fallout from the former football player’s actions.
In a 2018 interview, Hernandez’s older brother told PEOPLE that the athlete suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse before devolving into a life of violence.
“He had a lot of things happen, both good and bad,” Jonathan Hernandez told PEOPLE. “People think they know about my brother, but they really don’t. They know what they saw in the news, but they don’t know all the struggles he faced.”
Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez is now streaming on Netflix.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
