Duke alum Kyle Filipowski’s family accuses fiancée Caitlin Hutchinson of grooming, isolating the NBA newcomer
Duke alum Kyle Filipowski’s family claimed that his fiancée, Caitlin Hutchinson, “groomed” and forced a wedge between them and the NBA newcomer.
Earlier this week, the 20-year-old shocked basketball fans when he fell to the 32nd draft pick despite being projected to go in the first round. Amid the chatter, his family took to social media to allege that his much older fiancée had something to do with it.
Rumors about their relationship first came up on Thursday after ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony reported that NBA teams passed up on Filipowski — who got picked by the Utah Jazz — because they caught wind of the messy situation.
“NBA teams are talking about the fact that they had question marks about his girlfriend being so much older than him, why was he estranged from his family because of this whole situation,” Givony said during an appearance on “NBA Today” after first bringing it up on “The Lowe Post Podcast.”
“He apparently doesn’t talk to his parents or his brother and it’s a very, very odd situation.”
Although Givony said he didn’t “understand” why all that mattered, Kyle’s older brother, Daniel Filipowski, responded to the chatter on X, saying people don’t know the full “extent of the story.”
“There’s a story that has been pushed under the table for nearly two years now,” he said.
He went on to encourage people to “look up and read on Mormon grooming and brainwashing … [to] find some introductory details in there to connect some dots into the story that is going on here.”
“She forced him to cut us off from his life almost two years ago,” he claimed in a follow-up tweet. “Sent us an email and everything. Basically the official ‘goodbye letter.’”
An account allegedly belonging to Kyle’s mom, Becky Filipowski, claimed that Hutchinson only started dating her son because of his NBA prospects.
Becky further claimed that Hutchinson — who is reportedly eight years his senior — and Kyle became romantically involved when he was still in high school.
“You are opening a two year issue…and she is 28 with an endgame 3 years ago to have a diamond ring on her hand when Kyle left Duke. HE WAS STILL IN HS,” the account tweeted.
(Page Six has not been able to verify if the X account belongs to Becky or any of the claims made by it).
Photos from Hutchinson’s Instagram show that she has been dating the NBA newcomer since December 2021, as they celebrated their first anniversary in December of the following year.
Since Kyle was born in November 2003, this would mean they officially started dating just one month after his 18th birthday. It’s unclear when the pair met.
Hutchinson — who graduated from high school in 2015 — also accompanied Kyle to his high school prom in May 2022.
“People will stare. Make it worth their while. 👑💨,” Kyle captioned a carousel of photos of the pair at the time.
They announced their engagement in April, however, it’s unknown when he actually proposed.
Reps for Kyle did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
