Less than a year after his death, Oxygen is airing a two-part documentary on NFL player Aaron Hernandez. While he's unable to speak for himself, Aaron Hernandez's fiancée Shayanna Jenkins appears in Aaron Hernandez Uncovered to offer insight into his life. Jenkins and Hernandez had a child together, daughter Avielle, and Jenkins stood by her fiancé's side during his murder trials. Their story was further complicated by the fact that Hernandez was found guilty in 2015 of killing Odin Lloyd, who was dating Jenkins' sister. Yet, even after Hernandez's death, Jenkins is still standing by his side and that of the family they made together.
In April 2017, Hernandez killed himself in his jail cell. The former New England Patriots tight end was serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for the 2013 murder of Lloyd. Just five days before his death, Hernandez had been acquitted of another murder charge — a double homicide that had occurred in 2012. As CNN reported, Hernandez left a suicide note for Jenkins where he wrote, "Tell my story fully but never think anything besides how much I love you."
The Boston Globe reported that in the Oxygen docuseries, Jenkins explains why she continued to support Hernandez throughout his murder charges. "This is someone you love, who you just had a child with, and you think about your future and what's happening," Jenkins says in Aaron Hernandez Uncovered. "I wasn't going to let him experience it alone. I was going to stick by his side every step of the way."
A month after Hernandez's death, Jenkins appeared on Dr. Phil and spoke openly about her fiancé. As the show reported, Jenkins and Hernandez knew each other since childhood and were high school sweethearts. According to CNN, she was pregnant with their child at the time of Lloyd's murder. The Daily Mail reported that Hernandez and Jenkins grew up in the town of Bristol, Connecticut, and that he proposed on the same day as her baby shower. She gave birth to Avielle on November 6, 2012 — which is also Hernandez's birthday — and they had planned to wed in 2014, but that never came to pass.
After he was found guilty of first-degree murder, the Providence Journal reported that Jenkins had petitioned to change her name. She is now legally Shayanna Hernandez (although for clarity, this article will continue to refer to her as Jenkins). She told Dr. Phil, "I changed my name for the simple fact that we were a family and I'm very strict on that. And my daughter is learning her name. She learned mine and she learned daddy's and my last name was different. So now she knows me as Shayanna Hernandez instead of Shayanna Jenkins."
Jenkins also told Dr. Phil that she is estranged from Hernandez's family — and The Daily Mail noted that she's also estranged from her sister Shaneah since Shaneah was dating Lloyd at the time of his murder. Now, Jenkins and five-year-old Avielle live in Rhode Island. People magazine reported via the Boston Herald that Jenkins was given the authority to sell Hernandez's Massachusetts mansion and it sold for $1 million in November 2017. Also in November 2017, the Boston Herald reported that Hernandez might have set up a trust that would ensure Avielle received money even though he was in debt at the time of his death.
In her interview with Dr. Phil, Jenkins made it clear that she still thinks Hernandez is innocent. She called him the "love of her life." Jenkins also discussed how people have such hatred toward Hernandez, whose murder charge was vacated after his death due to a Massachusetts law, per CNN. The outlet reported that "convictions are thrown out if a defendant dies before his or her appeal is heard."
On Dr. Phil, Jenkins said, "I just ask that people live life. I'll continue living mine. I'll do the best that I can being a mother — a single mother — and raise a great child." And, as she demonstrates by appearing in Aaron Hernandez Uncovered on March 17 and 18, she'll continue to defend the man she loved.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
