Heisman Winner Travis Hunter and Fiancee Leanna Both Deactivate Social Media in the Wake of Criticism

With controversy surrounding their relationship continuing to build, Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and his fiancée, Leanna Lenee, have both excused themselves from the narrative. 

Hunter, 21, a two-way star for the University of Colorado, and Lenee, 23, both deactivated their Instagram and TikTok accounts over the weekend. The Twitch channel belonging to Hunter, where he routinely live streams, is still active.

The pair made the decision to cut the cord on social media in the face of growing debate about their pending marriage. 

Conversation shifted into overdrive at the Heisman Trophy ceremony on December 14 — where Hunter was recognized as the best player in college football — when viewers at home criticized Lenee for not standing up when Hunter’s name was called. 

Videos from Heisman weekend also circulated showing Lenee allegedly getting upset at Hunter, with fans believing it was over him not paying enough attention to her at an Adidas pop-up shop. 

On Monday, December 16, Lenee took to her now-deactivated TikTok account to address the multiple controversies. 

“The things that I see people make up is truly crazy, because it’s not what happened,” Lenee said in the video. “I just think people are finding every single little thing and trying to make it something it’s not. Bird brain individuals are just accepting what they see online.”

Lenee attempted to explain her behavior at the Heisman ceremony, simply stating that she wasn’t quite sure how to act appropriately. 

“This is making me so mad because anyone who knows me knows I support Travis in every win, everything he does,” Lenee said. “Because I truly, truly love that man. He is perfect in my eyes.”

She continued, “When his name was called, if you watch the video, you can see me [start to stand], but his mom didn’t get up. So I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I don’t get up. Maybe I just sit here with her.’ So I sat there.”

Lenee also denied that she and Hunter had any sort of heated discussion at the pop-up shop. 

Elsewhere in the video, Lenee pushed back against the claim that Hunter was in a relationship when the two started dating. 

“I don’t do home-wrecking,” she said. “I’m not a side piece. I don’t stand for any of those things. I support women. I would never do that to another woman because I would never want it done to me.”

In fact, Lenee revealed she actually let Hunter’s initial correspondence with her sit unanswered for months because of his relationship status at the time. 

“Travis, when he first ever DM’d me — when we first met, I said I left him in my DMs for two months and people said, ‘Oh, she left him in DMs until she figured out who he was.’ That is not true at all,” Lenee said. “The real reason Travis sat in my DMs for two months is because he DM’d me when he had a girlfriend.”

Lenee continued, “I instantly knew he had a partner. So, I exited the message and he sat there until he was single.”

In the seven-minute TikTok video, Lenee also turned her attention to a previous comment she made about Hunter not being her “type.”

“I did not mean attractiveness,” Lenee said in the TikTok video. “I don’t have a physical type, period. No two men that I’ve previously dated look the same. My first one was a white cowboy. Second one was a Mexican soccer player. And then I dated a Black man who’s a SoundCloud rapper.”

Lenee continued, “I have never dated the same type physically. I don’t care about what people look like or what they can give me. I date people for who they are as a person, how they honor God and how they treat the people around them.”

Hunter, who is widely expected to be one of the top 5 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, and Lenee made their relationship Instagram official in February 2022 and got engaged two years later. 

After Heisman weekend, Hunter took to Twitch and revealed that Lenee had cried herself to sleep following the backlash. 

“Y’all hate on me and then y’all go and hate on my girl,” Hunter said on December 15. “Bro, I feel the same thing that she feels. We’re inseparable, bro. We’re with each other. If she’s hurting, of course I’m going to be hurting. If I’m hurting, of course she’s going to be hurting.”

The couple received the support of Colorado quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, who criticized other athletes and celebrities for taking about Hunter in public. 

“All y’all athletes, entertainers, artist etc if y’all genuine trying to holla at trav y’all know how to get  in touch with him or someone around,” Sanders, 22, wrote via X on Sunday, December 22. “At this point y’all just posting for the algorithm trying to look cool.”