Belichick denies Jordon Hudson has any role in UNC football program

Bill Belichick said his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, has no role with the North Carolina football program and called reports that she is copied on all of his university email a flat-out lie. The 74-year-old coach spoke to the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday, days before the Tar Heels play at Clemson.

Hudson, 25, has no football responsibilities at the university, a North Carolina spokesperson told the Journal. Belichick said the work she does for him involves scheduling and personal appearances that sit outside his coaching job, and that the request that prompted the story had been taken out of context. Asked to describe their current working relationship, he said: "There are some things that she helps me schedule or look at. It's not North Carolina stuff."

Belichick spoke with Allie Jones of the Wall Street Journal. He had not addressed the subject publicly since May 2025, according to CBS Sports. Speculation about Hudson's place in the program has followed him since he was hired, fueled by her presence on the Tar Heels sideline and by the email, which surfaced through public records requests.

What the December email asked for

Belichick traced the confusion to the month he arrived. He took the North Carolina job in December 2024 while still carrying commitments he had built up in television and radio, and with a book on the way. "When I took the job here, it was December, and at that time I was doing five TV shows, the radio show, I had a book coming out," he told the Journal. "I had a lot of other things going on when I took the job."

The email asked staff to route inquiries about his personal appearances to Hudson so he could coordinate them away from the university.

So, I sent an email when I got here and I said, 'Can you please forward any requests to Jordon about my personal appearances so that I can work and coordinate them outside the university?' Didn't have anything to do with the university. Well, that was leaked as released as 'Jordon's involved in every single thing that I do and she's copied on every email.' That's just a flat-out lie.

TMZ reported that the message at the center of the story asked North Carolina staff to copy Hudson on any email regarding "FB social media and web content." In Belichick's account to the Journal, the request covered his personal appearances and was sent because he was juggling outside work in his first weeks on the job.

The CBS interview that started it

The story dates to April 2025, when Belichick sat for a CBS Sunday Morning interview to promote his book, "The Art of Winning: Lessons From My Life in Football." When the CBS journalist Tony Dokoupil asked how he and Hudson had met, Hudson, who was just off camera, cut in. The exchange spread quickly and turned her presence around the program into a running national story.

Belichick defended her afterward in a statement, saying she had stepped in because the interview kept moving away from the book, the subject he had expected to discuss. He later said the aired cut of the sit-down created a false narrative.

We're not talking about this.

The Journal also reported that Hudson filed public records requests between December 2025 and June 2026, seeking copies of communications between university staff and members of the media about her relationship with Belichick. Belichick declined to speak for her about why she filed them. "I think if you look at her requests, you would probably find that she was asking for things that had already been sent," he said.

Hudson is listed on LinkedIn as the chief operating officer of Belichick Productions. For the past two years she has served as his de facto publicist and business agent, the Boston Globe reported, and records in the secretary of state's office show she has created more than a half-dozen limited liability companies, among them Chapel Bill, Coach Show, All BB Team, Trouble Cub Enterprises, Roosevelt Glam and Gingerbread Apartments.

Two resignations and an internal investigation

Hudson is not the only off-field matter around the program. Michael Lombardi, a longtime Belichick ally who served as the university's general manager, was placed on administrative leave on July 27 and resigned on Sept. 3 during the university's investigation into a human resources complaint filed by a former employee, ESPN reported. Steve Belichick, the coach's son and the team's defensive coordinator, is resigning effective Oct. 27, when his medical leave ends. Announcing the end of its investigation, the university said certain actions had shown "a disregard for Carolina's values and standards of conduct" but were isolated in scope and not a systemic failure. It gave no reason for the resignation.

WRAL reported that the university's internal investigation includes Lombardi and Steve Belichick, who allegedly has been questioned by lawyers over drug-related issues and involvement with players, according to CBS Sports. The Boston Globe reported that the younger Belichick was placed on indefinite medical leave in early August, and that a North Carolina television station reported lawyers hired by the school were asking whether he used drugs while on the job or provided drugs to Tar Heels players.

At a news conference on Sept. 7, Belichick declined to answer questions about the school's scrutiny of the football program, the Globe reported. "In the end, we want to run the program in the very best way," he said. "If there's things we need to do to correct it, we'll obviously do them." He also said the work of the investigative team and the school's code of conduct were important, and that its student-athletes should get the best treatment, care and coaching possible, according to CBS Sports.

Hudson absent in Ireland, back in Chapel Hill

Hudson was not spotted by fans or photographers at the Tar Heels' season opener, a 15-10 win in Ireland on Aug. 29, the Globe reported on Sept. 9. Her most recent Instagram post with Belichick was in May, a photograph of the two walking hand in hand on the track at the Kentucky Derby, captioned: "Not the first time we've trudged through the mud together." She was back on the sideline in Chapel Hill for North Carolina's second game, carrying a football-shaped purse, TMZ reported.

Belichick separates his own business from the team

Belichick, in his second season at North Carolina, used the interview to reject the idea that Hudson has been managing his football career. He objected in particular to the suggestion that she was seeking to operate as a football executive, an idea he said had grown far beyond anything in the email.

The way the story was picked up was a long way from that. Like, 'She's trying to be the general manager of the team,' and it's so ridiculous.

The podcaster Pablo Torre has said Hudson is the person you go through to book Belichick, including for a Super Bowl commercial. Hudson has used social media to answer critics, including a threat to sue Torre, and filed a trademark application for the term "gold digger" for use on jewelry and key chains, according to the Globe.

Clemson on Saturday with a 2-0 start

North Carolina is 2-0 and plays at Clemson, which is 1-1, at noon on Saturday. The Tar Heels have not won at Clemson since 2001. They finished 4-8 in Belichick's first season. He said this week that he had spent many spring days at Clemson watching their players, scouting trips that long predate his move to the college game. He praised Swinney for caring about the game and his players, and said he has been impressed by the players who have come out of the program.

Belichick, a six-time Super Bowl champion and the former head coach of the New England Patriots, is paid $10 million a year at North Carolina, which the Globe reported makes him the highest-paid public employee in state history.

Hudson grew up in a small fishing village in Downeast Maine and attended Bridgewater State University, where she was a cheerleader, the Globe reported. She did not graduate, and received a cosmetology certificate from the New England Hair Academy in Malden. A year ago Belichick spent most of a weekend in a Holiday Inn ballroom in Portland watching her compete in the Miss Maine USA pageant, where she finished third.

The couple went public on Instagram two years ago. Hudson declined an interview with the Wall Street Journal.