WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for American Sports Story.

Aaron Hernandez’s on-and-off relationship with his fiancée Shayanna Jenkins is explored in FX’s American Sports Story. Throughout the first five episodes of American Sports Story, a dramatized version of Aaron Hernandez’s true story has been loosely chronicled from his adolescence to his rapid rise as one of the NFL’s top tight ends. The first two episodes of American Sports Story capture a basic understanding of Aaron Hernandez’s complicated upbringing in Bristol, Connecticut, where he initially met his future fiancée and mother of his child, Shayanna Jenkins. American Sports Story portrays several NFL players as well as Hernandez’s close friends and family members.

American Sports Story episode 5 sees the return of Shayanna Jenkins’ character, portrayed by Jaylen Barron (Blindspotting, Shameless). Josh Andrés Rivera leads the cast of American Sports Story as Aaron Hernandez. The series also features performances by Norbert Leo Butz (Bloodline) as Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Patrick Schwarzenegger (Gen V) as former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. The series portrays some of the major highs, such as winning the prestigious John Mackey Award, and the lows, such as the murder trial of Odin Lloyd and the alleged shooting of a man named Sherrod, in Hernandez’s tragic true story.

Aaron Hernandez & Shayanna Jenkins Got Engaged Before The Birth Of Their Daughter

They began dating while they were both students at Bristol Central High School

Aaron Hernandez and Shayanna Jenkins met when they were just kids in elementary school. They knew each other throughout their childhoods, as depicted in American Sports Story. They officially began dating during their high school years while they were both students at Bristol Central High School. Although Hernandez had a girlfriend named Alyssa Anderson (Vanessa in ASS) while he attended the University of Florida, the on-and-off relationship between him and Jenkins never explicitly ended. Anderson later revealed that Hernandez privately told her that he had been molested as a child and had been intimate with men in college.

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Every Tight End Drafted Before Aaron Hernandez In 2010

As portrayed in American Sports Story episode 4, Aaron Hernandez wasn’t selected in the 2010 NFL Draft until the 4th round as the 113th overall pick.

Hernandez broke up with Anderson soon after he got drafted by the New England Patriots in 2010. As depicted in American Sports Story, he reconnected with Jenkins while he was a rookie on the Patriots and they soon fell back into their relationship. Hernandez and Anderson got engaged in October 2012, one month before their daughter Avielle Janelle Hernandez was born. Avielle, who is now 11 years old, is the only daughter of Aaron Hernandez and Shayanna Jenkins. Just seven months after Avielle’s birth, Hernandez was arrested on first-degree murder charges. He died by suicide in prison in 2017 when she was 4 years old.

Shayanna Jenkins Testified At Aaron Hernandez’s Trials

Jenkins was granted immunity to testify in 2015

Based on the first-degree murder conviction Hernandez received in 2015, the jury concluded that Hernandez murdered Odin Lloyd on June 17, 2013, just two months before the Patriots offered him a five-year $40 million contract. Lloyd was the boyfriend of Shaneah Jenkins, the sister of Shayanna Jenkins, Aaron Hernandez’s girlfriend and the mother of his child. Lloyd’s body was found in an industrial area in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, not far from a wealthy community where Hernandez had lived in a mansion. Lloyd, a semi-pro football player in the Boston area, had been murdered execution-style and shot a total of six times.

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Shayanna Jenkins testified in both of Hernandez’s murder trials, first in 2015 and again in 2017. In 2015, Hernandez revealed that she removed a large box from the basement of their North Attleborough home which prosecutors believed concealed the gun that was used to kill Lloyd. The murder weapon was never found, but Jenkins was granted immunity for her testimony (via WBUR). In 2017, Jenkins testified again in the double homicide case of which Hernandez was found not guilty, claiming that she did not recall certain conversations about Avery S. Bradley (Sherrod in ASS) and “learned to keep her mouth shut in certain situations” (via CNN).

Shayanna Jenkins’ Life After Aaron Hernandez’s Death Explained

Shayanna had a second daughter with another partner in 2018

Shayanna Jenkins stood by Hernandez’s side throughout his murder trials, conviction, and the beginning of his lifetime prison sentence. Her loyalty to Hernandez created a major gap in her relationship with her sister Shaneah Jenkins. In Netflix’s Killer Inside docuseries, Jenkins revealed that she no longer had a close connection to her sister. Shayanna currently has a wide following on social media (242K followers on Instagram) where she updates fans and friends about her life. She is reportedly a licensed insurance broker in the Boston area and had a second daughter, Giselle, in 2018 with a man named Dino Guilmette.

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Aaron Hernandez’s NFL Contracts Explained: Rookie, Extension & Total Earnings

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Shayanna Jenkins goes by the full name Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, although she and Hernandez never officially tied the knot. She wore her engagement ring to the 2015 trial when she testified in court. On April 19, 2024, seven years after Aaron’s death, she posted a selfie of her and Hernandez with the caption “It takes as long as it takes. I will always wake up everyday [sic] only to remember you are not here and have to feel that ache all over again. You are truly loved & missed” with a heart emoji and the hashtag “#AJH”. Jenkins-Hernandez lives a mostly private life as a mother of two daughters outside of her large social media following.

What Shayanna Jenkins Has Said About Aaron Hernandez

Jenkins wished Hernandez had confided in her about his sexuality

Jenkins-Hernandez has kept a relatively low profile out of the public spotlight since Hernandez’s passing. She did appear in two episodes of Dr. Phil in May 2017, revealing that she thought Hernandez’s death by suicide was a “hoax” and that someone was “playing a trick on me.” She added that she and Hernandez “were looking so bright” and “going up a ladder to a positive direction” following his acquittal of the double homicide charges in 2017 (via Boston.com). Jenkins also appeared in an exclusive interview with ABC News following the release of Netflix’s 2020 Killer Inside docuseries, saying “Although I have a child with Aaron, I still can’t tell you how he was feeling inside. No one can.”

Jenkins responded to Tom Brady’s joke about Hernandez during Netflix’s The Roast of Tom Brady. Speaking about Gronkowski, Brady said, “Gronk was actually pretty useful on the field, although the bar for a Patriots tight end was pretty low back then: Block, catch, don’t murder.” Jenkins-Hernandez responded to Brady’s diss by saying, “It’s sad that I’m trying to raise my children in such a cruel world.” (via TMZ). For the record, Brady was not Hernandez’s only former teammate to make a lewd comment about him during the Netflix special. Jenkins’ role in Hernandez’s tragic true story will continue to enfold in future episodes of American Sports Story.

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Why Aaron Hernandez’s Head Hurts In American Sports Story

American Sports Story depicts Aaron Hernandez taking several hard hits while on the gridiron, some to the head, nodding to his advanced CTE diagnosis.

Source: WBUR, CNN, Boston.com, ABC News, TMZ

American Sports Story is a TV show from Stu Zicherman and executive produced by Ryan Murphy. The series stars Josh Andrés Rivera as Aaron Hernandez and Patrick Schwarzenegger as Tim Tebow. The sports anthology series serves as the fourth installment in Murphy’s “American Story” franchise.

Cast

Josh Andrés Rivera , Patrick Schwarzenegger

Seasons

1

Directors

Paris Barclay , Carl Franklin