The mother of former Duke center Kyle Filipowski gave her side on how her son’s public relationship with an alleged “groomer” is impacting the family.

Kyle Filipowski summer league

Kyle Filipowski (R) is trying not to let his personal life impact his rookie season (Image: Getty Images)

The mother of new Utah Jazz center Kyle Filipowski broke her silence on the situation of her estranged son’s alleged abusive relationship with his current fiancee.

In an interview with the Salt Lake City Tribune, Becky Filipowski said: “We didn’t ask for this. ESPN came out with that report and opened this up. We responded to that.”

“This has been an issue, painful for us for years before draft night. I’m seeing all these reports and they are speculating without doing any research. … Sometimes I wish we never spoke about it.”

Filipowski, a 2024 consensus Second-team All-American and First-team All-ACC selection at Duke, was widely expected to go in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft – potentially even the lottery.

However, reports surfaced about his relationship with now-fiancee Caitlin Hutchinson, who is seven years older than Fiipowski and started dating the Jazz center when he turned 18. She was a longtime family friend of the Filipowski family. He fell to Utah in the second round (32nd overall).

NC State v Duke

Filipowski was outplayed in the Elite Eight by NC State center DJ Burns (Image: Getty)

According to reports, Filipowski’s relationship with Hutchinson led him to be estranged from his family. His brother previously referenced Hutchinson used “coercive control” and elements of “grooming” to lure him in.

Filipowksi allegedly announced the estrangement to his family over email: “I did everything I could to convince you to support me and my choices, and you made the choice not to…. Because of the way you’ve treated me and how you continue to treat me, I don’t want you in my life. I wanted you to hear it from me.”

All of the attention had a damaging impact on Becky: “People are speculating without doing any research…Sometimes I wish we never spoke about it,” she said.

“It was like the dam gates had been opened. And almost three years worth of trying to sweep it under the rug, and trying to check him out of our lives [ended].”

“Then that happened, and it was like, ‘Oh my god. It’s out in the open.’ And just out of the nature that nobody is speaking the truth to power, that they are just speculating about all this —-.”

Filipowski didn’t help his draft stock with a poor 2024 NCAA Tournament, getting outplayed by the undersized DJ Burns and the No. 11 seed NC State in the Elite Eight. However, he’s a seven-foot stretch big who averaged over 16 points and eight rebounds a game in his two-year Duke career.

He recently signed a four-year, $12 million contract (first two years guaranteed) with the Jazz, who emphasized Filipowski’s family life had no impact on their decision to draft him.