One day after Jordon Hudson promised a statement, Bill Belichick provided just that.
In a statement released by the university’s media relations department, the North Carolina head coach defended his 24-year-old girlfriend’s actions during his viral interview on this week’s episode of CBS Sunday Morning. At one point in the interview, Hudson interrupted the conversation to shut down a question about how her and Belichick met, with TMZ later reporting that she had interfered in the interview on multiple occasions and even stormed off at one point, delaying production.
According to the statement attributed to Bill Belichick, CBS had agreed to only focus on his upcoming book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football” for the interview. He defended Hudson’s actions by stating that she was “doing her job to ensure the interview stayed on track” and that the “false narrative” that she was attempting to control the conversation “is simply not true.”
The entirety of the statement, according to 97.9 The Hill, reads:
“I agreed to speak with CBS Sunday Morning to promote my new book, “The Art of Winning – Lessons from My Life in Football.” Prior to this interview, I clearly communicated with my publicist at Simon & Schuster that any promotional interviews I participated in would agree to focus solely on the contents of the book.
Unfortunately, that expectation was not honored during the interview. I was surprised when unrelated topics were introduced, and I repeatedly expressed to the reporter, Tony Dokoupil, and the producers that I preferred to keep the conversation centered on the book. After this occurred several times, Jordon, with whom I share both a personal and professional relationship, stepped in to reiterate that point to help refocus the discussion. She was not deflecting any specific question or topic but simply doing her job to ensure the interview stayed on track. Some of the clips make it appear as though we were avoiding the question of how we met, but we have been open about the fact that Jordon and I met on a flight to Palm Beach in 2021.
The final eight-minute segment does not reflect the productive 35-minute conversation we had, which covered a wide range of topics related to my career. Instead, it presents selectively edited clips and stills from just a few minutes of the interview to suggest a false narrative – that Jordon was attempting to control the conversation – which is simply not true.”
The statement from Bill Belichick comes amid a slew of negative headlines regarding his relationship, which began with Sunday’s interview. On Wednesday, The Athletic reported that Hudson was “instrumental” in stopping an HBO Hard Knocks series focused on the Tar Heels while identifying herself as the chief operating officer of “Belichick Productions,” which doesn’t appear to have any official business records. It was also previously reported that Belichick has asked at least one UNC staffer to copy Hudson on emails, despite her not being employed by the university.
If nothing else, Belichick’s statement provides the first official confirmation that the 73-year-old head coach’s relationship with Hudson is both personal and professional. Still, plenty of questions remain, including how involved Hudson is with the North Carolina program despite not being employed by the school and how qualified she is for any of these roles.
As Belichick continues to promote his upcoming book and his debut season in Chapel Hill continues to approach, this doesn’t figure to be a story that will be going away anytime soon.