North Carolina Football Coach Bill Belichick released a statement Wednesday afternoon regarding his interview over the weekend with CBS that has gone viral with respect to his companion, Jordon Hudson, playing a role in the discussion.

CBS aired the 8-minute segment and included a moment when Belichick was asked how he met Hudson. Belichick is 73 years of old and Hudson is 24. The question did not reference their ages.

Hudson, however, quickly injected, “We’re not talking about that.” The comment has generated national attention across all platforms and almost all genres. Most of the narrative has been negative even questioning Belichick’s commitment to UNC Football, how much of a role she has, to people offering opinions about their relationship.

So, Belichick and UNC put out a statement Wednesday afternoon, and here it is:

“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."