![Kristen Saban James Taylor]()
This was not on my bingo card for the day.
Former
Bachelorette alum James Taylor took to social media today sharing some personal information that happened a while ago involving Nick Saban's daughter.
"I’ll get right to the point - around 2 months ago I flew out to Birmingham to see Kristen Saban, yes Nick Saban’s daughter. She picked me up and we drove to Tuscaloosa."
He starts the post by highlighting a picture of Kristen and himself embracing each other. Taylor goes on to say that he and Saban had been romantically talking, and he flew out to visit her to see if the connection were something they'd want to pursue.
After three days together, however, she broke the news to Taylor that she was married and still lived with her husband:
"Three days later she tells me she’s still married and living with her husband. I was shocked and pissed that this wasn’t made known to me before I came to visit. I verbalized that to Kristen. She said she thought it was respectful to tell me in person… I told her this isn’t a break up. This can and should be done on the phone."
After he and Kristen parted ways, they never spoke again. So why is he sharing this information about their scandalous love? Taylor goes on in the post that he is being blackmailed. Someone gained access to these images and threatened to send them to TMZ if he did not give them a lump sum of cash.
As Taylor weighed his options for quite some time, and tomorrow was the deadline to deliver the money to the blackmailer, he owned it and disclosed the information himself.
"Tomorrow’s my deadline to decide so I started consolidating some cash to pay, I thought about doing nothing and calling his / her bluff… I thought about a lot but decided to go the Eminem route and call myself out on my terms with the truth instead of letting someone else twist it.
The truth is I did NOT know that when I flew there. I hope there are no more pictures posted because what’s the point now? (Nick apparently knows about these because she got a call from him on the way back to Birmingham and I could hear him PISSED. I am not going to lie; as an Aggie, it made me chuckle a little bit when she told me it was about us and people taking pictures - but it also made me feel bad for her cuz she loves her dad; that’s for sure, and she was instantly sad).
I also hope she’s not under the same pressure from this same person. And I hope she has the best life—I don’t wish a single bad thing on Kristen."
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Zhf1juyT6/?img_index=3
While the message seems like this was a severe situation, folks in the comments section are not buying it. Even if the blackmailer said they were going to run to TMZ with these images, who is to say that they would follow through or that TMZ would even run the story?
The comments section quickly filled with users, noting that this is not a good look for Taylor.
"Respectfully, bad look bro."
"Does anyone actually believe this??"
"Hey so - this ain’t it. Nothing you’re saying is true. This is quite the attention grab and if someone was being blackmailed, with all due respect, why would it be you?"
"How did you not know when she has such a big name & is so active on social media? "
"This is almost laughable. Does trouble and drama just follow you around?"
"Why would TMZ or anyone else care lol? We’re not talking about A list or even B list celebs here…"
I'm not playing devil's advocate, but I see where the commenters are coming from here.
Saban is a nationally known last name, and Kristen's social media highlights images of her with her child. There are also images of her and her husband on social media. Even if he has not been posted recently, and divorce speculation has been circulating around the internet, I do feel it is naive not to question that before visiting when both of you stand in the public eye.
James Taylor, however, was not done with his message and left more for users in the comment section as well.
"I’m far from perfect, but man - before you judge, remember I’ve been blindsided in the face and lost teeth for no reason. FBI went through my parent's house for no reason - besides the “news” claiming I went to J6 when I was skiing in Utah that day (like 20 magazines printed that crap). And much more… people just say and write what they want with no regard for the truth.
Hope this doesn’t cause Kristen or the Saban fam trouble. I think it woulda been worse saying nothing, I don’t want some loser getting paid off of our pain and I’m done taking the fall - sadly, I gotta start lookin out for myself because the media sure won’t. And my family and future family hopefully.
Anyway, glad this is off my chest and the pit in my stomach from the threats is nearly gone. Y’all pray for me and her and her fam and I hope there’s a lot of mercy to go around and only good comes from this. Y’all have a good one."
Since he posted on social media, Kirsten has only shared an Instagram story with the following quote:
"Next time someone is trying to bring you down, remember: Confidence is quite. Insecurity is loud."
Rumors of her divorce have swirled for a while now, so I don't think James Taylor is coming out of this looking like a hero for not being blackmailed... feels like a grab to stay relevant.
A couple weeks ago, Kristen posted a video to TikTok captioned "To new beginnings" so it sounds like she is definitely single now, if she wasn't officially divorced/separated already.
