Hallie Aiono, ex-girlfriend of Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, said she is “healing” after false allegations about her personal life, including from ESPN’s Ryan Clark, nearly drove her to suicide.
“While I was trying to figure out how I was going to bring my son into the world, three grown men decided to use my life as entertainment,” Aiono, 25, said in a video via TikTok on Sunday, July 12. “A year ago from today, three retired, old NFL guys decided to talk about me on their podcast and talked about me in a very disgusting and viral way. They painted me as this slut, this whore.”
She continued, “What they didn’t know and what the world didn’t know, was behind the headlines. I wasn’t receiving the financial, emotional, physical support that I needed…I opened my phone at 3 am to see this podcast and I will never forget that moment. To be so honest, I am surprised that I am even here. I did not want to live anymore. Watching these men use their very public platform to talk about me in such a terrible way…watching this podcast just amplified the rumors and the headlines about me was very hard.”
Aiono is referring to “The Pivot” podcast, hosted by Clark and cohosts Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor. During an episode last July, the trio discussed the paternity petition that Aiono had filed against Nacua, 25, seeking confirmation that he was the biological father — something she previously said she never doubted — and seeking custody while giving Nacua visitation rights.
She and Nacua welcomed son, Kingston, in October 2025.
“If you were in it for the money, you had one job,” Clark, 46, said on the podcast. “The one job you had was to not have sex with somebody else…And you couldn’t wait. So for Puka Nacua, congrats, man. I pray that’s not your baby.”
Crowder, 42, meanwhile, questioned whether Aiono knew who the father was and suggested Nacua escaped a “financial trap.”
Us Weekly has reached out to all three cohosts for comment.
“Those eight minutes that those guys decided to talk about me became a very significant part in the darkest part of my life,” Aiono said. “Because of this experience, I have recognized even more so now watching people online talk so freely about people that they have no clue what they’re going through and who they actually are. It’s chasing views and clicks and exposure.”
She then reiterated that she never cheated during her relationship with Nacua and that talking about her ordeal “is healing a part of me that I didn’t know it would.”
Aiono ended her video with a message for Kingston.
“Something I want my son to always know is how hard I fought for him, how important he is to me, and how special he is to me, and how worth it he is and how worthy he is,” she said. “I’m so glad that after I post this video, I just get to go to bed. Happily. With my son in the other room, sleeping so great. I am so lucky. And even though I still have my dark days and I still have to go through a lot of bulls***, I’m here and my son is here.”
