Jordon Hudson is The Role of a Lifetime For Dakota Johnson
The Friday Post.
Hello from an airport lounge at Heathrow! In case you missed it: I went to Utah to profile Whitney Leavitt from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives for Vulture.
Introducing Jordon Hudson, the 24-year-old girlfriend of Bill Belichick, the 73-year-old football coach with eight Super Bowl wins. Hudson sat in on Belichick’s CBS interview and curtly shut down any questions about how they met; she was by Belichick’s side in that Dunkin’ Donuts Super Bowl commercial with the Affleck brothers and Matt Damon. Hudson is Mr. Belichick’s right-hand arm man, Mr. Belichick’s everything, his confidant, his best friend, his silly rabbit. She’s also his manager and his mermaid:
On Friday, the sports podcaster Pablo Torre reported that two sources told him that Hudson is not allowed in the UNC-Chapel Hill football facilities or on their field, per People.1 UNC released a statement denying Torre’s reporting. “While Jordon Hudson is not an employee at the University or Carolina Athletics, she is welcome to the Carolina Football facilities. Jordon will continue to manage all activities related to Coach Belichick’s personal brand outside of his responsibilities for Carolina Football and the University,” according to a Carolina Athletics statement.
Hudson has been a passing curiosity for me after regular updates from
via and The Sports Gossip Show. There is something engrossing about this relationship and how much power Hudson apparently wields — she’s the manager, publicist, and partner of one of the most important men in the nation’s most popular sport — but how otherwise conventional her ambitions seem to be? I would not expect the person who attacks CBS News and manages the career of a football coach signed to a $10 million contract to also want to compete in a local beauty pageant. I wanted to talk to Madeline about all this and some more sports drama.Hunter Harris: Madeline, I’m coming to you as a woman. We have so much to get into today, but I need to know now how problematic my crush on Anthony Edwards is. The video of him talking to Barack Obama like the former President of the United States was a regular basketball podcaster … the video of him saying Matilda is his favorite movie … the video of him just walking the streets after the Timberwolves beat the Lakers … sorry that’s my man! How embarrassed should I be…
Madeline Hill: Oh, you shouldn’t be embarrassed. There are a lot of people who argue that Edwards should be the next face of the NBA after LeBron “I can’t believe this is my life” James finally retires (whenever that is). People feel the same way about Anthony Edwards as some of the cultish Fremen in Dune feel about Timothée Chalamet.
Both on the court and off, Edwards has charisma! He has charm! He has star power!
I’m not sure if you saw this, but in the first game of the first round of the NBA Playoffs recently, Edwards did a Spider-Man gesture directed at Lakers star Luka Doncic after making a three-pointer. This! Man! Loves! The! Attention! Could you imagine the ego to do that, win the game, and then win the series all at 23??? Couldn’t be me!
HH: I need you to know the grinning cheek to cheek I just did when I realized that his birthday is August 5 … oh, I love a Leo.
But what we’re really here to talk about is Jordon Hudson, the 24-year-old girlfriend of the 73-year-old former Patriots coach Bill Belichick. I have watched the Tony Dokoupil CBS clip where Hudson interjects to shut down a question about how she and Belichick met (supposedly on a plane). I only know about Jordon from you, your newsletter, and your podcast. Now that everyone in the world is talking about her, I need to know how you’re feeling. You’ve been on this beat forever! And also give us a quick bio of her pretty please.
MH: Someone described me and my cohost, Charlotte Wilder, as the Woodward and Bernstein of the Jordon Hudson beat and…you know what? They’re not wrong. I know way too much about this woman and this relationship!
If you’re chronically online and you’re reading this (so everyone), you’ll know that Hudson is dating the former head coach of the New England Patriots (very good football team) and current head coach at the University of North Carolina football team, Bill Belichick.
Hudson is 24 and Belichick is 73. When news first broke that they were dating, all of the stories centered around the age gap. She’s young! He’s old! This is gross! Sure…the age gap is interesting, but what’s more interesting is how Hudson has essentially become Belichick’s de facto business manager, publicist, social media manager, the list goes on and on…. It’s gotten to the point where actual sports experts are weighing in on whether Hudson’s influence over the Belichick Cinematic Universe could have career implications for Belichick.
Imagine being down *that* bad!
As time has gone on, I think I’ve just grown more concerned for everyone who is being impacted by Hudson’s ability to (at least partially) run the Belichick empire. What happens to the people he employs? The players at UNC who agreed to play there because of him? His family??? So many questions….
HH: Jordan feels like the role of a lifetime for Laura Dern in 19962 (or maybe the role of a lifetime for Riley Keough or Dakota Johson today) — god forbid I support women’s wrongs. There is something so intense about the way she hunches over that computer, directing the conversation between two powerful men. But at the same time, she is actively a pageant girl, set to compete for Miss Maine this weekend? What do you think her end game here is? It would be unreal if she manages one man’s weak ego into leading a $70 million football program.
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MH: I mean it would be so iconic if she ended up on the sidelines with a headset on at UNC games next season. I really wouldn’t be shocked by anything at this point! I will give credit where credit is due: She knows what she’s doing. She’s amassed a real estate portfolio worth over $8 million since she started dating Belichick. She’s creating generational wealth! Is her endgame becoming a real estate mogul? A head football coach? Or something else?
My gut is that she honestly just wants to be cast on The Traitors. Since there isn’t a Real Housewives franchise in North Carolina, I feel like this is the second-best reality show casting choice for her.
HH: God, an iconic Traitors season would be her, Francesca Farago from Too Hot Too Handle, and, like, Kenya Moore, formerly of Atlanta Housewives. Any other sports gossip I should have on my radar??
MH: Did you see that tense exchange between former college basketball teammates Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo at a Dallas Wings and Las Vegas Aces preseason game??? For context, Miles and Hidalgo were teammates at Notre Dame and all signs were pointing towards the team heading to the Final Four during March Madness this year, but that did not happen. They had some major losses and things got MESSY.
Miles ended up transferring to TCU, and of course people were curious if there was beef between the pair. Miles insisted that there wasn’t, but I’ll let you be the judge after watching this clip…
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HH: Oh, wow. You make me feel like Timothee Chalamet skipping the Met Gala to watch the Knicks. I always have time for the drama but not the games.
What the paid list got this week
Access to the Met Gala chat!3
I reviewed Cowboy Carter’s opening night at SoFi in LA:
Next week: Going live on Substack to kii with Brandon Kyle Goodman!
More more more
Bravo says the RHONY reboot hasn’t been cancelled, but it also hasn’t confirmed its renewal. (Us Weekly)
Partiful’s co-founders worked at Peter Thiel’s Death Star-y tech company Palantir. (The Cut)
A New Yorker newsletter from a few weeks ago had me revisiting this Cat Power profile written in 2003 by Hilton Als. (The New Yorker) (On the subject of Cat Power, I must note that I think about the kicker from Joe Coscarelli’s Cat Power profile from 2018 basically all the time)
Mikey! Margaret! Austin! Sydney! What a brilliant idea: “How Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood Discovered a New Generation of Stars” (Vulture)
It’s hard to pinpoint the most frightening part of this rich reporting on John Fetterman, but this is a start: “Many of the staffers I spoke with are angry. They are troubled. And they are sad. These were some of Fetterman’s truest believers, and they now question his fitness to be a senator. They worry he may present a risk to the Democratic Party and maybe even to himself.” (Intelligencer)
I read almost every single comment on this
post asking, “How did you know your partner was The One.” Not exactly trying to intuit answers or advice, but the big and small ways respondents choose another person’s love were quite moving to read. (Big Salad)Speaking of politics: Anthony Weiner returns. What a great profile, full of so many precise observations. “If confrontation is the deepest form of love, Weiner is the Buddha. That’s the generous take. The less generous one is that he’s obsessive—he’s never met a boundary he respects or a consequence he fears. That his certainty and enthusiasm are tied up with a need to dominate. That he’s not merely tumescent; he needs you to see it.” (The Atlantic)
When I went to Disney last week, I could only think about that NYMag story about the couple suing to get back into the storied Club 33. (Vulture)
Mother’s Day programming, or counter-programming: My friend Madison wrote something really moving and thought-provoking about being estranged from her mother. (Burnt)
Doechii’s response to the viral video of her demanding umbrellas is perfect PR: not rambling, not self-serious, and doesn’t over-explain or extend the lifespan of the story.
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After Trump said that he wanted to put 100 per cent tariffs on movies made outside of the U.S., the White House clarified that a final decision hasn’t been reached. Thankfully, Jon Voight is involved for some reason. (CNBC) It’s gonna be so crazy when James Bond is a boy from a random Netflix movie and MI6 sends him to … Chicago.
Pope Cousin: I do not think the Cardinals Conclaved long enough to do all the gossiping that should be done to elect a new pope, and I certainly do not think there should be an American pope … sorry, it’s just so … regular. I have to let you know, however, that Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo XIV, was at one point on the board of a Tulsa Catholic high school I almost went to. (Bill Hader went there, btw.) (Tulsa World)
The Golden Globes are introducing a Best Podcast category in 2026.4 I am happy about this because we should announce new awards every day for Julia Louis-Dreyfuss to deservedly win. (THR)
I can’t believe this New Yorker story about notable New Yorkers’ living rooms is how I found out EmRata got rid of her infamously stained rug! (The New Yorker) Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese’s living rooms are also featured.
Club Chalamet’s PTO has ended:5
That’s all this week! Thank you for reading. This week I was in London and stayed in a hotel so unpretentious and exceedingly lovely that I felt like Hannah Horvath when she walks into Patrick Wilson’s apartment and she’s wearing that Modcloth onesie and he has a whole adult life with a matching patio furniture and big nice towels.
“Bill Belichick’s family is extraordinarily concerned about what has transpired,” Torre continued. “One Belichick family source told me, ‘There is deep worry for how detrimental Jordon can be for not just North Carolina but Bill’s legacy, reputation — everything he has built and worked for over decades.’”
Jordon Hudson reminds me sooooo much of Dern’s performance in Recount, which I rewatched recently for some reason.
And I was on MSNBC last weekend giving a Met Gala preview:
Sit DOWN Dax Shepard!
Once again, her pen: “The gap between the haves and have nots widening every day with blind allegiance to self-serving, narcissistic billionaires and multi-millionaires who flaunt their wealth with private jets, and their power and influence to manipulate, intimidate, and control people, the media, the stock markets, and supporters for their own vanity and financial gain.” Unfortunately it seems of all the billionaires that are actively ruining our lives and our planet, CC is probably just talking about Kylie :/
I do not know much about basketball and initially thought Anthony "I played 'Goose' in Top Gun" Edwards was your man, Hunter, and thought "Wow, I have to respect this very brave and unexpected confession!"
Thank you for this interview! I love The Sports Gossip Show and have been avidly following this relationship, even though I have no ties to Boston sports. I still cannot believe Jordan was in the Dunkin' Super Bowl commercial.