Jordon Hudson had some advice for fellow Miss Maine USA contestant Isabelle St. Cyr.
On the sidelines of the pageant in Portland on Sunday, the pair bonded over the media frenzy surrounding their participation in the Miss Maine USA contest.
“We had a conversation backstage and we were like, ‘You know, the media hasn’t necessarily been kind to us.’ We just kind of talked about how we’ve dealt with it, how to move forward, how to remain positive and when to comment and not to comment,” St. Cyr, 24, told People magazine. “I really appreciate her willingness to talk to me about the media coverage.”
Hudson, 24, is no stranger to the spotlight. Aside from a presence of social media, Hudson has attracted a lot of attention for her relationship with former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
Hudson and Belichick, 73, met on a flight in 2021 and began dating in 2022. They moved in together last year. A source close to Belichick told Page Six that they have “definitely discussed marriage.”
Belichick started his NFL career in 1975 as an assistant for the Baltimore Colts, 26 years before Hudson was born in April 2001. Belichick won his first Super Bowl with the Patriots in 2002. Belichick attended an NFL Honors event in February with Hudson.
Belichick is now coaching at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he’s signed a five-year contract worth $10 million annually to bring him on as head coach. The contract also includes $3.5 million in bonuses.
It was revealed earlier this year that Belichick asked the university’s public relations team to copy Hudson on emails to him related to social media.
Hudson, the daughter of a Maine fisherman, recently garnered headlines for interjecting when a CBS interviewer asked Belichick about how the pair met.
“We’re not talking about this,” she said.
Belichick was promoting his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.”
On the sidelines of the pageant, Hudson advised St. Cyr to do her research about whomever wants to interview her and to know when to comment. And remember, the negativity is “how people get clicks.”
“I think overall she just helped me to know that I wasn’t the only one that was dealing with it, obviously,” St. Cyr told People magazine.
St. Cyr was the first transgender Miss Maine USA contestant. Her entry comes at a time when the Trump administration is pressuring the state over the inclusion of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports and other policies concerning trans students and prisoners.
But when interviewed by the Bangor Daily News earlier this year, St. Cyr, who represented Monson in the pageant, said she wasn’t making a political statement.
The Miss Universe Organization, which oversees state pageants like Maine’s, has allowed transgender contestants since it changed its rules in 2012.
Neither Hudson nor St. Cyr took home the crown Sunday. Instead, it went to Shelby Howell of Bangor.
But Howell appears to have few connections to the Queen City, which only appeared in her social media posts 10 weeks before the contest.
A profile for Howell, who has a California real estate license, on the Keller Williams real estate website states she is “a lifelong resident” of San Diego, where she was born and raised. Howell attended high school and college in California.
In order to enroll in the Miss Maine USA competition, contestants must live in Maine permanently and have lived here for at least three months before the pageant, according to the Miss Maine USA website.
Contestants could also be a full-time student in Maine — as long as they will have completed one semester or session by Dec. 31 — or work in Maine full-time, among other requirements.
Howell submitted all the proper paperwork to enter the Maine pageant, Ava Clemente, assistant director of the Clemente Organization, which produces the pageant, told the BDN earlier this week.
