PORTLAND — Miss Maine USA 2025 has been crowned. It was not Jordon Hudson.
The 24-year-old Hudson represented her hometown of Hancock in the pageant. The girlfriend of former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick finished as the second runner-up, third place overall.
Shelby Howell of Bangor was named the winner of the two-day event, which was held at the Holiday Inn Portland-By the Bay.
Hudson had a strong performance in the Saturday preliminaries, winning the “style” award before moving on to the top 10 on Sunday. Hudson then advanced to the top five, where she participated in the interview portion.
On Saturday, she participated in the swimwear and evening gown events. Her performance was strong enough for her to be named one of this year’s 10 semifinalists.
Belichick was present for both days of the competition, seated in the front row to the far right of the stage. The coach kept a low profile through the weekend and did not have a noticeable reaction when it was revealed that Hudson did not win.
After reaching the top five finalists, Hudson participated in the interview portion of the pageant. The first question was, simply, how are you doing?
“I’m feeling an immense amount of pride right now,” Hudson said. “I hope anyone who’s watching this finds the strength to push through whatever it is that they’re going through, and embodies that hate never wins.”
As for the actual question, Hudson was asked if she could go back in time to one moment in her life, what would it be and why?
“I would go back to the days when I was on my family’s fishing boat in Hancock, Maine,” Hudson said.
“I think about this often because there’s a mass exodus for fishermen occurring in the rural areas of Maine, and I don’t want to see more fishermen leave this place,” she added. “As your next Miss Maine USA, I would make a point to go to communities, to go to, to go into the government and advocate for these people so that they don’t have to think about these memories as a past moment.”
Multiple superlative awards were handed out throughout the competition. Penobscot’s Ariana DeJesus and Greenville’s Lexi Bjork split the People’s Choice award after the Miss Maine USA website crashed as the two were in a tight race.
Hudson won the “style” award following her performance in the preliminaries. The “photogenic” award went to Siobhan Surette. The “congeniality” award went to Mara Carpenter.
This year’s Miss Maine USA competition had extra attention this year as Hudson competed for the second year in a row. Hudson was the runner-up for the 2024 Miss Maine competition.
Hudson has been the target of much media attention in recent months as her relationship with the 73-year-old Belichick has come to light.
Hudson has played a part in handling Belichick’s public image. She drew criticism when she interrupted an interview with CBS to shut down a line of questioning about their relationship.
