“I Got No Other Family”: Travis Hunter Confesses Emotional Truth Days After Marrying Leanna Lenee

A shutdown corner with the instincts of a wide receiver. A No. 1 recruit who played with the urgency of an overlooked walk-on. A household name who never had a stable home. For most of his life, duality has followed Travis Hunter. Long before he became the face of a football revolution under Deion Sanders, Hunter was just a kid in a cramped motel room in Suwanee, Georgia, sharing one bed with his mother, stepfather, and three younger siblings. His entire world, then, was a single room and one growing conviction: he had to make it out.

He was 14 when the family left Boynton Beach, hoping that a new environment and a better high school football program might lead to something bigger. The move brought them to Suwanee. First, they stayed with friends. Then it was the motel room. Hunter’s stepfather brought him to Collins Hill High School and told the coaches his stepson was going to be a star. While the coaches did not initially believe that Travis would be a sure day one starter. All it took was one practice session for them to realize his potential. “When we saw him for the first time in practice, we’re like, damn, he isn’t lying. This kid is legit,” the high school coach, Drew Swick, had said when he saw Travis play for the first time. Since then, he has shown no signs of stopping.

The struggle transformed him. In a recent interview with Action Sports Jax’s Brent Martineau, Hunter talked about the initial struggles he faced. When asked if Travis would have been a different person if not for the move to Georgia, he disagreed but did discuss a few aspects he learned during those days. “I couldn’t tell you. I mean, I’d be the same person, but I don’t think I’d have the same energy and the same, you know, go get,” Travis said while speaking of the extra motivation and energy he got from the struggle of his initial days.

“Once my mom moved me, it was just like, she put me in a space where like I got no other family. It‘s just me. I got to go to work. I got these four years of high school, get through those. And I got three years of college, get through that,” Travis said. That “work” came in the form of early-morning lifts, hours of route-running, and late-night film study. 

By junior year, the home situation hadn’t changed much, but Hunter had. He’d become a national recruit, a quiet force who carried more pressure than most kids his age. When it became clear the family couldn’t give him the stability he needed, he moved in with Collins Hill assistant coach Frontia Fountain. “He needed somewhere to breathe,” Fountain later told The Athletic. “Somewhere to grow without survival being the first thought in the morning.”

At Jackson State, then at Colorado, he became that very thing: not just a player, but a vision. Cornerback. Wide receiver. Punt returner. Face of a program. Over two years, he recorded 96 receptions, 1,258 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 35 tackles—all in a Heisman-contending season that defied positional logic. Through all that, there was one plan in his mind. The end goal was the NFL.

“Once I get to the NFL, got to go into, I can’t go no more. And once I’m done with that. Then I can sit down and relax,” Travis said, explaining the plan. Saying that he will only sit down and relax after he’s achieved everything he wants in the NFL. This attitude of ‘working hard till you make it’ is visible in Travis even today.

While Travis will now have to get down to work to achieve his on-field desires, he is already ticking off things from his off-field bucket list. Ticking off one of the many items was his wedding to Leanna Lenee. However, things weren’t as joyful as they should’ve been for the couple. After all, the two faced intense trolling, especially Leanna, for marrying Travis. At the same time, many on the internet had even advised Travis against marrying Leanna because of her ‘past actions’ and ‘intentions’ as they perceived them.

Travis ticks item off bucket list as he marries GF

Travis Hunter and Leanna Lenee have been together for a long time. The two of them became official on Instagram back in March 2022, but their story goes back to the time Travis had DMed Leanna. She had not replied to Travis then because he wasn’t single, but once Travis was in the market, their’s was a done deal. Leanna stayed with Travis through the 3 years at college, where he played Football for Jackson State and Colorado.

It was then that things started to get serious, and in February of 2024, the couple got engaged. Leanna has since then been a regular face at his Football games and was present even when he won the Heisman Trophy or during the NFL draft. Soon after being drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars, Travis and Leanna did not wait for too long. They eventually got married last week in a luxurious celebration at a venue in Tennessee. The couple was dressed beautifully in white, while the wedding party and the guests donned all-black suits and dresses. Travis even made a grand gesture and got his bride a Mercedes-Benz AMG G63 Brabus 800. A car that is estimated to be worth over $200,000.

As the couple got married, the internet was divided. While one part was supportive and happy for the couple, the other half was disappointed with him for marrying Leanna. Many people even trolled the couple for marrying young. A lot of fans, as well as pundits, also critiqued Travis for not signing a pre-nup before their wedding. They even questioned Leanna’s loyalty and intentions for marrying him, with some calling her a ‘gold-digger’.