Jennifer Hudson was almost seriously injured while sitting courtside at an NBA game on Tuesday night. The daytime TV host was sitting with longtime boyfriend, Common, when she was hit in the face by a basketball.
The incident happened during the Golden State Warriors vs NY Knicks game in Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 4.
A fully inflated basketball feels like a rock. In fact, players call it “the rock” because it’s hard. So imagine being beaned in the face with one.
Common, 52, tried to deflect the ball away from Jennifer, but he wasn’t quick enough.
The impact was hard enough to knock Jennifer’s glasses off her face. According to PEOPLE, the frames appeared to be bent from the impact.
Jennifer, 43, blinked her eyes several times and mouthed the word “wow.”
“Protect Jennifer Hudson!” a sports analyst said during a replay of the incident. “Oh no, not the glasses,” another sports commentator said. “Those look real expensive, too.”
“Let me see what Common did. Did he protect her? No, no he didn’t,” said the second commentator, as his co-host said the actor “tried.”
J-Hud looked annoyed, but sports fans know to keep your eyes on the ball at all times. Fans have been seriously injured by errant balls at sporting events in the past.
J-Hud and Common went public with their relationship in January 2024. Since then, they have been on and off – but mainly on.
“I mean, we’re both very musical,” Hudson told host Seth Meyers of her relationship with the spoken-word rapper.
“Two Chicagoans, and I was like, ‘Where’s the poetry and the storytelling in the holiday albums?’ And who better to do it than him? To do, like, spoken-word poetry for the holidays? And so that’s where the song came from,” she added of the song “Almost Christmas.”
Prior to Jennifer, Common dated singer Erykah Badu, actress Taraji P. Henson, tennis player Serena Williams, and standup comedienne Tiffany Haddish.
Haddish has never gotten over their breakup.
Watch the video below.
"Protect Jennifer Hudson" ??
Jennifer Hudson got her glasses knocked off courtside after this pass ? pic.twitter.com/i2s0RWKEQ1
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 5, 2025
