My favorite character I ever played was a super shady rogue who, as it was revealed halfway through the campaign, was the estranged son of a very wealthy and powerful politician. He was very embarrassed to have to reveal this to the party, as he had carefully curated an image of himself as a self-made scallywag.
Turns out cleptomania isn’t just for the working class, although PR is definitely for the ruling class.
I don’t think it was a hoax, but campaign 101 is to be absolutely confident in your candidacy until the nanosecond you drop out. If you telegraph weakness to the voting public, and then end up staying in the race, that will be a millstone around your neck. Even if he was wavering in the weeks leading up to his dropout, there would be zero upside to communicating that publicly.