University of North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick, eager to avoid misspeaking, sought advice from high-ranking school officials in formulating a response to the fallout over a nationally televised interview that raised questions about the role and influence of his girlfriend Jordon Hudson, records obtained by WRAL News show.
“I don’t want to make a wrong move here,” Belichick wrote in an early morning text.The message is among a trove of records that illustrates the scope of the university’s response to the CBS Sunday Morning interview, which garnered national headlines, for both media and fans. The documents — including emails and text messages — were released to WRAL on Friday following a public records request.
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Belichick agreed to the interview to promote his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.” Hudson was depicted as interrupting and refusing to let Belichick answer a question about how they met. Her presence, Belichick said, was because a different publicist wasn’t in attendance.
UNC hired Belichick — a legendary NFL coach with six Super Bowl titles as a head coach but no collegiate experience — to lead its football program in December. The relationship between the 73-year-old Belichick and Hudson, 24, has overshadowed the football aspects of Belichick’s hire. And the CBS Interview, which aired on April 27, and Hudson’s role in it significantly elevated the story.
Two days later — on April 29, the same day that Hudson posted on Instagram “full statement coming soon” — Belichick sketched out the outlines of a statement in an email to Beth Keith, a senior associate vice chancellor in the Office of University Communications.
“Jordon and I have both a personal & professional relationship,” Belchick wrote in the email. “This is not a secret. Jordon assists me with my personal media, which is why I asked UNC to forward media requests (E.G. CBS 60 Minutes) to her. Jordon has zero involvement in the UNC football program, beyond the degree that my personal media intersects with it.”
CBS wanted to do the interview in Chapel Hill, Belichick wrote in an email, “which I rejected because UNC was not part of the book.” The interview took place in Annapolis, Maryland, at the site of Belichick’s former high school. Belichick wore a tattered U.S. Naval Academy sweatshirt during the interview. His father coached at Navy for decades.
“Jordon was present at the CBS interview because David Kass, the Simon & Schuster publicist, was not there,” Belichick wrote, referring to the publisher of his book. “I included Jordon in the book acknowledgments because she was a creative contributor to the book, including having the idea for formatting the 4 special pages in the book.”
On page 56 of the book, Belichick praises Lawrence Taylor, a legendary New York Giants linebacker who played at UNC. Taylor wore No. 56 during his Hall of Fame NFL career. Belchick was the Giants’ defensive coordinator for much of Taylor’s career.
Page 106 of the book was for Belichick’s father, Steve, who was born in 1919 and would be 106 years of age this year. Page 172 was for former NFL coach Bill Parcells, who Belichick coached under for years and who had 172 career wins. Page 199 was for quarterback Tom Brady, who famously was the 199th pick in the NFL Draft.
Hudson planned to attend the April 21 interview whether Kass was there or not, according to a person familiar with the pre-interview process. Belichick said he didn’t care either way about Kass’ attendance.
CBS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. WRAL also reached out to Belichick through his spokesman, Hudson and UNC.
‘Secretly’ recorded
The interview with CBS host Tony Dokoupil started off well, Belichick wrote.
“For approximately 35 uninterrupted minutes, Tony asked questions about the book,” Belichick wrote. “Then, the questions shifted to other subjects that were not related to the Art of Winning, which we had outlined as off-limits with my book publicist.”
Among those questions was a seemingly innocuous question about how Belichick and Hudson met, a chance encounter on a 2021 plane flight that they’ve outlined before. Hudson interjects when Dokoupil asks the question.
Entertainment news outlet TMZ reported earlier in June that Hudson attempted to call Kass during the interview. TMZ reported that there were at least six questions that appeared unrelated to the book, including four about Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft.
Belichick wrote in his email to Keith that when the interview started Hudson asked where she could sit “off-camera.”
“Secretly, CBS had a camera focused on Jordon where Lead producer Gabe instructed her to sit,” Belichick writes.
Gabriel Falcon is listed as the producer of the story.
When the indoor interview ended, Dokoupil and Falcon tried for more than 36 minutes to convince him to do a walk-and-talk as part of the interview, Belichick told Keith in an email. Hudson posted a photo with a “35:59” timestamp on Instagram in her April 29 message.
“We were unable to reach an agreement on the conclusion of the interview, so there was no walk & talk,” he wrote.
At the end of the email to Keith, Belichick wrote: “I met Jordon randomly on a flight to Palm Beach in 2021. That is no secret. Jordon was not dodging the specific question regarding how we met, but rather was preventing the interview from continuing to probe into personal matters.”
Working on a statement
Throughout the afternoon and evening, Keith sent several versions of a statement to Belichick, which included parts of what the coach wrote in his initial email.
Early in the morning on April 30, Belichick sent a text message to Keith. “I’m still working thru the situation with the publisher/Inkwell,” he wrote. “I apologize for the delays here – I don’t want to make a wrong move.”
Belichick and Keith texted throughout the morning with Belichick offering last-minute edits to the statement.
The edits made it into the statement, which was attributed to Belichick, and sent out by the university at 1:24 p.m. It said:
“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.”
Reporters from news outlets including Deadline, E! News, NBC News, CBS News, CNN, Huff Post, The Hill, The Washington Post and local television stations across the state reached out to UNC for a copy of the statement.
InkWell Management — Belichick’s literary agency — also released a statement on April 30, one it had sent to UNC previously.
"The segment that was shown to the public veered into a discussion of Bill’s personal life and away from the subject of his book, resulting in a raft of hostile social media posts about his personal life," the group said in a statement. "Bill has written an authoritative and entertaining book about success that should be judged by its contents, not by the clicks generated by the segment."CBS News responded with a statement of its own after the UNC’s statement: "When we agreed to speak with Mr. Belichick, it was for a wide-ranging interview. There were no preconditions or limitations to this conversation. This was confirmed repeatedly with his publisher before the interview took place and after it was completed.”
‘A laughing stock’
UNC’s work wasn’t done with the release of the statement. Later on April 30, Keith wrote to Brigitta Shouppe, an associate director of issues management and media relations at UNC, for help in drafting “an email template to respond” to emails from disgruntled fans or alums. The request came after Christi Hurt, the chief of staff to UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts, forwarded one such email to Keith. Hurt wrote that “I’m getting quite a few of these … not form emails.”
The email Hurt shared was from a 1977 alumna who wrote that she had “never felt compelled to write a letter to our leadership, until now. I’m writing in response to the actions taken by Bill Belichick and his 24 year old girlfriend.”
The email continued: “Never did I think UNC would become a laughing stock in the sports world because of his young girlfriend.”
Shouppe responded to Keith hours later with a proposed formatted response that was four paragraphs long. It misspelled “Belichik” throughout.
“Thank you for reaching out, for sharing your views, and for your continued engagement and interest in Carolina,” it said. “Coach Belichik [sic] brings a wealth of experience in coaching and football at the highest levels. The news media has demonstrated an ongoing interest in those previous experiences and activities outside of Kenan Stadium.”
Kevin Best, a senior director of media relations, offered changes. He wrote that, based on the email from the alumna, “this is more than just the CBS interview. We need to reference Jordan's role, perhaps referencing the person and professional relationship.”
Belichick told local media earlier this month that Hudson “doesn’t have any role in the UNC football program. There’s been noise out there about a lot of different things. Our focus is, day-to-day, getting better.”
Roberts told WRAL last month that he is “delighted about all the attention being paid to Carolina football” since Belichick’s hiring. The Tar Heels have sold out of their allotment of 20,000 season tickets for 2025 despite raising prices about 25% across the board. ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said that the league’s television partners “ran to us before we could even run to them” after UNC hired Belichick.
UNC opens its 2025 season against Texas Christian University on Labor Day in Chapel Hill. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.