Jordon Hudson, the 24-year-old girlfriend of 73-year-old future Hall of Fame NFL coach (and current North Carolina coach) Bill Belichick clearly loves attention. If she follows through on her latest claim, she’ll be getting far more attention that she ever could have bargained for.
Hudson posted on Instagram that she’s suing Pablo Torre, the podcasting journalist (or journalisting podcaster) who has devoted multiple episodes to the Belichick-Hudson relationship.
Based on the photo accompanying her “I’m suing you @pablotorre” message, she apparently will focus any legal claims (if any legal claims are made) on Torre’s contention from May 2025 that she was “banned” from the North Carolina football facility.
Setting aside the question of whether “banned” meant “she’s no longer allowed to work at a place she was never employed in the first place” or “they’re barricading the doors and calling security if she shows up,” a potential defamation claim would include an important hurdle, while also potentially opening Pandora’s box.
Hudson has become a public figure. The “actual malice” standard would apply. When a public figure has allegedly been defamed, it’s not enough for the statement to be false. The public-figure plaintiff must show that the party making the statement knew it was false or acted with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity of the claim.
Beyond that, the discovery process would be rigorous — and potentially entertaining. The harm caused by defamation is determined largely by assessing the impact of the false statement on the plaintiff’s reputation. This requires determining the plaintiff’s reputation before the false statement was made. Which opens the door to all sorts of questions and other inquiries that the plaintiff may regard as irrelevant, annoying, and otherwise unfortunate consequences of pulling the pin on the litigation grenade.
Once upon a time (a long time ago), I practiced law. Even in non-defamation cases, I said to potential clients, “Think about the one thing about yourself that you wouldn’t want others to know. If you go forward with this case, you need to assume many others will find out about it.”
Before Hudson sues Torre (or anyone, for that matter), someone with a law degree and experience practicing law needs to explain that to her. She’ll be inviting a degree of scrutiny that will make the various New York Post articles look like puff pieces in the preschool newspaper.
It also would likely entail a sworn, multi-hour (and possibly multi-day) deposition of Belichick, who would not be able to grumble his way around answering questions he doesn’t want to answer.
So, no, it would be a bad idea to sue Torre. From the perspective of someone who runs a media company, it would be very good for business.
