Sydney Sweeney Shares Emotional Response to Controversial American Eagle Jeans Ad: 'I'm Against Hate' (Exclusive)

Derek White/Getty; American Eagle

NEED TO KNOW

• In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Sydney Sweeney addressed her hotly debated American Eagle fall denim campaign, which featured the slogan "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans"

• "I have come to realize that my silence regarding this issue has only widened the divide, not closed it," Sweeney tells PEOPLE

• The actress also opens up about her new film The Housemaid and what intentions she's setting for the new year

Sydney Sweeneyis addressing her highly publicized American Eagle denim ad in an emotional interview with PEOPLE.

Sweeney came under scrutiny for thedenim brand's hotly debated campaigntitled,"Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,"which was released on July 23.

The campaign sparked a debate that the usage of the word "jeans" as a play on "genes" is racially charged and hints at genetic superiority. Others criticized it for catering to the male gaze and taking inspiration from Brooke Shields' controversial 1980 denim campaign.

"I was honestly surprised by the reaction," Sweeney tells PEOPLE. "I did it because I love the jeans and love the brand. I don't support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign. Many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren't true."

American Eagle

Shortly after the ad dropped,American Eagle took to social media to stand its groundin response to all the online chatter. In an Aug. 1Instagram, the brand wrote, "'Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans' is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We'll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone."

Sweeney tells PEOPLE she's someone who "leads with kindness," and that she is addressing the campaign backlash to clarify her stance and dispel negativity.

"Anyone who knows me knows that I'm always trying to bring people together. I'm against hate and divisiveness," she says. "In the past my stance has been to never respond to negative or positive press but recently I have come to realize that my silence regarding this issue has only widened the divide, not closed it. So I hope this new year brings more focus on what connects us instead of what divides us."

The actress firstbroke her silenceon the campaign in an interview withGQfor its "Men of the Year" cover storypublished on Nov. 4.

When asked byGQif she was surprised by the reaction of the American Eagle ad, Sweeney answered directly.

"I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I'm literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life," she responded.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

American Eagle

Despite the debate surrounding the campaign, American Eagle reported that the denim Sweeney was promoting sold well. In fact, pieces sold out.

Weeks after the launch on July 23, a press email from the brand stated that it saw record-breaking numbers, with a double-digit increase in men's and women's denim. Per the retailer, theSydney Jacketworn by Sweeney in the campaign sold out in one day, while theSydney Jean, the actress' custom Dreamy Drape style with 100% of proceeds benefiting the Crisis Text Line, sold out in one week.

Right now, Sweeney is busy promoting her upcoming filmThe Housemaid, directed by Paul Feig and adapted from Freida McFadden's 2022 bestselling novel.

She says some of her favorite set memories involve bonding with co-star Amanda Seyfried.

"One that is special to me was the time Amanda crocheted me this bag that is now my favorite bag ever," Sweeney says. "She would crochet on set all the time and she had made her own really cute bags, so when we wrapped she made me one."

Sweeney adds that the pair empowered each other by "showing up for one another" while filming, "each giving 100%."

"We both are similar in we always are giving positive energy to everyone, cast and crew," she says. "But most of all just having fun."

Manoli Figetakis/WireImage

She says she hopes audiences watching the film in theaters "leave completely shocked," adding, "I want them to come back with their friends for more."

Steve Eichner/Variety via Getty

Read on for more of PEOPLE's exclusive catchup with Sweeney.

What does a typical day off entail for you?"It usually entails some sort of adventure outside, whether I'm jumping out of a plane, or water skiing, or going rock climbing. There's also some arts and crafts activity, my best friend Kelley and I have many half way done projects we need to finish. Then I try to also fit in a solid core class, and end it with cuddles with my dog."

View this post on Instagram

Do you have any fun holiday traditions that you are most looking forward to?"My entire family gets matching onesies and we stack on top of each other like a pyramid and take a picture together. It's been fun to watch it grow wider and taller every year as cousins get spouses and have kids."What's most important to you when it comes to maintaining a healthy work/life balance?"Honestly, I haven't figured out a healthy work life balance yet. I'm a work in progress."What makes you happiest?"Love, family and friends."What are you most grateful for?"That my grandparents are still with me."Any New Year's resolutions?"You know this past year I have tried to be strong but it's been really hard at times. I think this next year I want to be really intentional with showing people who I am and what I want, cause so many people can just get it wrong."

The Housemaidis in theaters Dec. 19.

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Sydney Sweeney Shares Emotional Response to Controversial American Eagle Jeans Ad: 'I'm Against Hate' (Exclusive)

Derek White/Getty; American Eagle NEED TO KNOW In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Sydney Sweeney addressed her hotly debated American...

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“Supergirl ”Actor Matthias Schoenaerts Sentenced to Prison for Driving Without a License Following 11 Prior Convictions: Report

Focus Features

NEED TO KNOW

• Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts has reportedly been sentenced to six months in prison following 11th prior convictions for driving violations

• According to a press release from the Limburg Police Court, a man — reported by local news to be Schoenaerts — was repeatedly found driving without a license

• This comes ahead of the release of the actor's latest project, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which is slated to premiere in June 2026

Matthias Schoenaerts has reportedly been sentenced to six months in prison.

On Monday, Dec. 1, theLimburg Police Court announced in a press releasethat a man in Beringen, Belgium, was sentenced to six months in prison for repeatedly driving without a valid license. According to the localBelga News AgencyandDeadlineSchoenaerts, 47, is the subject of the conviction.

Representatives for Schoenaerts did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Courtesy of Netflix

Per the release, the offenses occurred between April 5 and April 21, 2024. On one occasion, police claim he was stopped while driving a loaned motorcycle without a valid permit or documentation on his person, although the bike was later registered and insured.

Further investigation found that the man had been disqualified from driving since September 2021, after failing to complete the proper exams. The release stated that his license had been in the court's possession since January 2023.

Belgaalso reported that Schoenaerts was recently detained by authorities in Pelt, on Nov. 21, after allegedly driving without a license and refusing a breath test.

He was ultimately found guilty of driving without a valid driver's license on two different occasions — "both with aggravating circumstances due to previous serious traffic violations" — as well as failure to provide proof of insurance on April 5. He also has 11 previous police service records, the release stated.

In addition to his prison sentence, the man has been ordered to a one-year driving ban, a series of remedial, medical and psychological exams, and a fine of 4,000 euros. However, Court spokesperson Luc De Cleir told Belgian outletBelgiathat it is highly unlikely that the man will actually spend time in prison.

Miya Mizuno/HBO

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Matthias began his acting career in 1992, in the Belgian filmDaens, alongside his father Julien Schoenaerts. He went on to star in other projects in his native country before his breakthrough role in Jacques Audiard's French romanceRust and Bone,in which he starred oppositeMarion Cotillardin 2012.

He later took on roles in English films, such as Francis Lawrence'sRed Sparrow(starringJennifer Lawrence), Tom Hooper'sThe Danish Girl(starringEddie Redmayne), Luca Guadagnino'sA Bigger Splash(starringTilda SwintonandRalph Fiennes), Thomas Vinterberg'sFar From the Madding Crowd(starringCarey Mulligan) and Terrence Malick'sA Hidden Life.

In 2020, he appeared in Gina Prince-Bythewood's 2020 action filmThe Old GuardwithCharlize Theron, as well as its sequel,The Old Guard 2,which came out earlier this year. He can also be seen in David O. Russell'sAmsterdam(starringChristian BaleandMargot Robbie) and the HBO seriesThe Regime(starringKate Winslet).

Most recently, Matthias joined the cast of DC Studios' upcoming action movieSupergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which is slated to be released on June 26, 2026. Other upcoming projects include French dramaChanger l'eau des fleursfrom Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) andThe Way of the Wind.

Read the original article onPeople

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“Supergirl ”Actor Matthias Schoenaerts Sentenced to Prison for Driving Without a License Following 11 Prior Convictions: Report

Focus Features NEED TO KNOW Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts has reportedly been sentenced to six months in prison following 11th prior...

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Hollywood, already on shaky economic ground, shudders at the prospect of a mega-Netflix

The business of Hollywood was in trouble long before theearth-rattling newsthat Netflix had inked a $72 billion takeover of Warner Bros. And while the deal is widely seen as a coup by Netflix, once a scrappy startup that had to fight to be taken seriously, it also threatens to further shrink the industry and raise prices for consumers.

Producers, actors, writers and theater owners are not thrilled about the prospect of a mega-Netflix dominating show business, with major unions and trade groups expressing deep concern about the potential impact on jobs and communities.

"The world's largest streaming company swallowing one of its biggest competitors is what antitrust laws were designed to prevent," the Writers Guild of America, the union representing Hollywood writers,saidFriday. "The outcome would eliminate jobs, push down wages, worsen conditions for all entertainment workers, raise prices for consumers, and reduce the volume and diversity of content for all viewers."

Netflix triumphed over Paramount and Comcast late Thursday in a bidding war for Warner Bros., surprising many in the industry who saw Paramount as a shoo-in.

"Holy f—k. Netflix got WBD," one Paramount staffer said in a text to CNN on Thursday night.

David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's parent company, attributed the decision to "the realities of an industry undergoing generational change."

The entertainment industry has experienced a series of upheavals in recent years. Studio consolidation accelerated in the late 2010s, leading to fewer projects being greenlit for production. The Covid-19 pandemic halted production for months, pushing studios to delay or cancel projects, leaving thousands out of work. Movie theaters faced an existential crisis during lockdowns, and have yet to reach pre-Covid audience levels. At the same time, TV and film productions have been increasingly moved out of the United States entirely to take advantage of lower labor costs and tax incentives.

All of that has rapidly shrunk the entertainment economy. Now, many worry the proposed Netflix deal will further erode their job security.

"Producers are rightfully concerned" about the potential deal, the Producers Guild of America said in a statement. "Our legacy studios are more than content libraries — within their vaults are the character and culture of our nation."

SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood's biggest actors union, also expressed concern about the potential deal, saying it raises "many serious questions" about the future of the entertainment industry, "especially the human creative talent whose livelihoods and careers depend on it."

Theater owners, in particular, dread the idea of negotiating future film releases with the company that built its business partly on bypassing theaters to bring original content directly to viewers. The big screen would face "an unprecedented threat," according to Cinema United, a trade association that represents more than 30,000 movie screens in the United States.

"Netflix's stated business model does not support theatrical exhibition," Cinema United President and CEO Michael O'Leary said in astatement. "In fact, it is the opposite. Regulators must look closely at the specifics of this proposed transaction and understand the negative impact it will have on consumers, exhibition and the entertainment industry."

The streaming Goliath

Netflix has been pushing back on that argument.

"We've released about 30 films into theaters this year, so it's not like we have this opposition to movies in theaters," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a call with Wall Street analysts Friday. "My pushback has been mostly in the fact of the long, exclusive windows, which we don't really think are that consumer-friendly."

He added: "Right now, you should count on everything that is planned on going to the theater through Warner Bros. will continue to go to the theaters through Warner Bros."

Netflix only occasionally releases its films to theaters to meet the criteria for Oscar nominations. Its business model has always been based on maintaining a giant library of movies and TV shows that viewers can access anywhere, anytime.

By acquiring Warner Bros., Netflix would gain access to some of Hollywood's most beloved and lucrative titles, including "Batman" and "Harry Potter," as well as a deep, 100-year-old library of Hollywood classics like "Casablanca" and "The Wizard of Oz." At the same time, it would control decades' worth of network TV shows like "Friends" along with all of HBO's prestige programming, such as "Game of Thrones."

On top of all that, the deal would effectively allow Netflix, the streaming king, to wipe out its second-largest competitor after Disney: HBO Max.

"This is not a win for consumers," Ross Benes, a senior analyst at eMarketer, told CNN. "Netflix has already aggressively raised prices, increased ad load, and stopped people from sharing passwords. Absorbing a competitor with strong content will only lead to its service becoming more expensive and give consumers less choice."

It could also be bad news for the tens of thousands of workers employed by the film and TV industry. Benes said the deal would likely lead to layoffs and reduce the number of companies willing to spend heavily on TV and movies.

"This contracts the industry," he said, while noting that the deal is far from done.

On Thursday,as news emergedthat Netflix was the top bidder for Warner Bros., an anonymous group of "concerned feature film producers" sent an open letter to Congress, warning of a potential economic and institutional "meltdown in Hollywood" if Netflix were to succeed, according toVariety.

The filmmakers argued that Netflix would "effectively hold a noose around the theatrical marketplace."

Paramount, on the other hand, took a different approach in its bid for Warner Bros., wooing talent with a theater-forward strategy.

Despite changes in the entertainment landscape, creative talent both in front of and behind the camera are eager for audiences to experience their work in theaters — not from the couch. It's one of the reasons why Netflix's top creators, the Duffer Brothers — best known for writing and producing the series "Stranger Things" — are jumping shipfrom Netflix to Paramount.

Paramount has also inked deals with some of the biggest names in movies over the past few months, including Tom Cruise, Will Smith, "Wicked" director John M. Chu and director James Mangold.

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Hollywood, already on shaky economic ground, shudders at the prospect of a mega-Netflix

The business of Hollywood was in trouble long before theearth-rattling newsthat Netflix had inked a $72 billion takeover of Warner Bros. An...

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US, Ukraine officials say they'll meet for 3rd day after progress on creating a security framework

WASHINGTON (AP) —President Donald Trump'sadvisers and Ukrainian officials say they'll meet for a third day of talks on Saturday after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.

The two sides also offered the sober assessment that any "real progress toward any agreement" ultimately will depend "on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace."

The statement from U.S. special envoySteve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to endnearly four years of war.

"Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings," the statement said. "Parties also separately reviewed the future prosperity agenda which aims to support Ukraine's post-war reconstruction, joint U.S.–Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects."

The U.S. and Ukrainian officials also discussed "deterrence capabilities" that Ukraine will need "to sustain a lasting peace."

Witkoffand Kushner's talks in Florida with Umerov, Ukraine's lead negotiator, and Hnatov followdiscussions between President Vladimir Putinand the U.S. envoys at the Kremlin on Tuesday.

Friday's session took place at the the Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, a high-end private golf and lifestyle destination owned by Witkoff's real estate development company.

Previous diplomatic attempts to break the deadlock have come to nothing andthe warhas continued unabated. Officials largely have kept a lid on how the latest talks are going, though Trump'sinitial 28-point planwas leaked.

Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyysaid his country's delegation in Florida wanted to hear from the U.S. side about the talks at the Kremlin.

Zelenskyy, as well as European leaders backing him, have repeatedly accused Putin ofstalling in peace talkswhile the Russian army tries to press forward with its invasion. Zelenskyy said in a video address late Thursday that officials wanted to know "what other pretexts Putin has come up with to drag out the war and to pressure Ukraine."

Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Friday, Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov praised Kushner as potentially playing an important role in ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ushakov also took part in Tuesday's talks at the Kremlin.

"If any plan leading to a settlement is put on paper, it will be the pen of Mr. Kushner that will lead the way," Ushakov said.

The flattering comments about Kushner by the senior Russian official come as Putin has sought to sow division between Trump and Ukraine and Europe at a moment when Trump's impatience with the conflict is mounting. Putin said hisfive-hour talks this weekwith Witkoff and Kushner were "necessary" and "useful," but some proposals were unacceptable.

Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, was a senior adviser to Trump during his first term and was the president's point person on developing the Abraham Accords, which formalized commercial and diplomatic ties between Israel and a trio of Arab nations.

Kushner has played a more informal role in Trump's second go-around, but he helped Witkoff close out ceasefire and hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas this fall. Trump tapped Kushner again to pair up with Witkoff to try to find an endgame to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The European take on the peace talks

Ushakov, who accompanied Putin on avisit to India on Friday, repeated the Russian president's recent criticism ofEurope's stanceon the peace talks. Kyiv's European allies are concerned about possibleRussian aggressionbeyond Ukraine and want a prospective peace deal to include strong security guarantees.

Kyiv's allies in Europe are "constantly putting forward demands that are unacceptable to Moscow," Ushakov told Russia's state-owned Zvezda TV. "Putting it mildly, the Europeans don't help Washington and Moscow reach a settlement on the Ukrainian issues."

French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that he made progress during avisit to Beijingon getting Chinese leader Xi Jinping's support for peace efforts.

"We exchanged deeply and truthfully on all points, and I saw a willingness from the (Chinese) president to contribute to stability and peace," Macron said.

The French president said he stressed that Ukraine needs guarantees that Russia won't attack it again if a settlement is reached and that Europe must have a voice in negotiations.

"The unity between Americans and Europeans on the Ukrainian issue is essential. And I say it, repeat it, emphasize it. We need to work together," Macron said.

The latest drone attacks

Russian drones struck a house in central Ukraine, killing a 12-year-old boy, officials said, while long-range Ukrainian strikes reportedly targeted a Russian port and an oil refinery.

The Russian attack on Thursday night in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region destroyed the house where the boy was killed and also two women were injured, according to the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 137 drones of various types during the night.

Ukrainian drones attacked a port and an oil refinery inside Russia overnight as part of Kyiv's campaign to disrupt Russian logistics, Ukraine's general staff said.

The drones struck Temriuk sea port in Russia's Krasnodar region and the Syzran oil refinery in the Samara region, starting blazes, a statement said. Syzran is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry said only that its air defenses intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. John Leicester in Paris and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine athttps://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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US, Ukraine officials say they'll meet for 3rd day after progress on creating a security framework

WASHINGTON (AP) —President Donald Trump'sadvisers and Ukrainian officials say they'll meet for a third day of tal...

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Catholic Church not yet ready to let women serve as deacons

Perhaps someday, theCatholic Churchwill allow women to serve as deacons. But that time, a Vatican commission has decided, is not now.

In a letter submitted toPope Leo XIVand released this week, a Vatican group formed in 2020 underPope Francistomull the issuesaid historical and theological research "excludes the possibility" of considering allowing women to the diaconate.

"In light of Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and ecclesiastical teaching, this assessment is strong, although it does not allow for a definitive judgment to be formulated at this time," a 2022 statement shared as part of the letter said.

Deacons are ordained ministers qualified to perform a number of priestly duties such as weddings, funerals and baptisms, though they are not priests and cannot celebrate Mass. The diaconate represents the Church's third degree of holy orders, below the presbyterate, or priests, and episcopate, or bishops.

Currently, the role is only open to married men, though according to historians, women served as deacons in the early Church.

In 2016,Pope Francisindicated he would support creation of a commission to examine the possibility of female deacons, and the topic created some buzz at the Vatican'sSynod on Synodalityin 2023 and 2024. The selection of Pope Leo had spurred optimism that the Church's stance on the issue might change.

Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, president of the commission, left open the possibility of future consideration following more in-depth discussion.

"Issues relating to the ordination of women as deacons remain open to further theological and pastoral study,"he wrote.

Given that the issue has proven divisive within the Church, he said, "this approach should be supported by increasingly well-equipped, global investigations, aimed, with farsighted wisdom, at exploring these ecclesial horizons."

The Vatican's decision was excoriated by theWomen's Ordination Conference, a national group that has long advocated for women's ordination in the Church.

"The Women's Ordination Conference is appalled by the Vatican's refusal to open its doors to women, even a crack," Kate McElwee, the group's executive director, saidin a statement. "Make no mistake: this is a decision that will harm the global church."

Few will have the patience, McElwee said, to wait out the further discussion suggested by the Vatican commission. She questioned the seriousness of the group's consideration given the lack of female input and noted that only 8 of 10 members voted on the issue, "adding more doubt that this commission functioned with any deep consultation or courage to respond to the signs of the time."

Petrocchi's letter noted that the commission had been equally divided on a statement advanced for consideration that said "the masculinity of Christ, and therefore the masculinity of those who receive Holy Orders, is not accidental, but is an integral part of the sacramental identity, preserving the divine order of salvation in Christ."

That the commission had even pondered such a statement, McElwee said, "is a deep, and theologically unsound, insult."

"For many women, this will be the final straw," she said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Catholic Church won't let women serve as deacons

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Catholic Church not yet ready to let women serve as deacons

Perhaps someday, theCatholic Churchwill allow women to serve as deacons. But that time, a Vatican commission has decided,...

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Vanity Fair parts ways with Olivia Nuzzi amid Robert F. Kennedy Jr. controversy

NEW YORK (AP) — Vanity Fair is parting ways with West Coast editorOlivia Nuzziamid ongoing controversy over her relationship with profile subject Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while she was the Washington correspondent for New York magazine.

A joint statement Friday from the magazine and Nuzzi said that they "have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year." She had been hired as its West Coast editor in September.

Nuzzi, 32, had been a star reporter for New York magazine known for colorful political profiles until the fall of 2024, when it was revealed she had an intense personal relationship withKennedy, a presidential candidate at the time she wrote about him and now head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Nuzzi was fired by New York for not disclosing her relationship.

She reflected on their relationship and the fallout from it in the memoir "American Canto," which refers to Kennedy as "The Politician" and ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza as "the man I did not marry." It was excerpted in Vanity Fair but competed for attention with a series of Substack posts by Lizza that contained embarrassing allegations.

Their feud quickly gripped media insiders as Lizza alleged that Nuzzi had an affair with another profile subject and had given Kennedy political advice, both considered off limits for journalists. Lizza even posted salacious, cringeworthy text messages from Kennedy to Nuzzi that he had intercepted.

Nuzzi denounced her ex-fiance's posts, in a Substack interview with Emily Sundberg, as "fiction-slash-revenge porn."

Friday's announcement came only days after the publication of "American Canto," disdained by critics and apparently of little interest to the reading public. The book ranked just 6,094 on Amazon.com's bestseller list as of Friday afternoon.

Critics were harsh: "A tell-all memoir? Ha. This is a tell-nothing memoir," wrote Helen Lewis in The Atlantic.

Through a miserable week, Nuzzi posted a humorous Substack column of "Signs Your Book Rollout Has Gone Awry."

Among them: "Monica Lewinsky reaches out to check on your mental health."

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Vanity Fair parts ways with Olivia Nuzzi amid Robert F. Kennedy Jr. controversy

NEW YORK (AP) — Vanity Fair is parting ways with West Coast editorOlivia Nuzziamid ongoing controversy over her relations...

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Michael Jordan testifies in NASCAR lawsuit, calling the racing body an unfair monopoly

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR's management structure is unfair to its teams and drivers, with money and power in the hands of people who don't risk life and limb on the oval, basketball legend Michael Jordan told a court on Friday.

Testimony from Jordan and the daughter-in-law ofPro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbshighlighted courtroom action Friday, in a federalantitrust case, accusingNASCAR of operating as monopolistic bullies.

"Someone had to step forward to challenge NASCAR," said Jordan, a co-owner of 23XI Racing.

Jordan explained that NASCAR needs to be run more like the NBA, with a mutually beneficial partnership between the league and its teams.

"If you share responsibility, the healthiness of the sport can grow," he said. "It needed to be looked at from a whole different perspective. That's why we're here."

Drivers are risking their lives to race with no insurance or union protections, according tothe former North Carolina Tar Heel,whowon six NBA championshipswith the Chicago Bulls.

"I never saw(NASCAR CEO) Jim Francedrive a car and risk his life," Jordan said.

Even though 13 of 15 NASCAR Cup Series teams have signed the 2025-2031 charter agreement extension, those organizations had no real choice, according to Heather Gibbs, chief operating officer of Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR).

Before Jordan took the stand, Gibbs told the court that signing was the only option in what amounted to a "take-it-or-leave-it" situation.

"As if you have a gun to your head,"Gibbs said of her team's decision to sign.

Even though JGR is on one of the sport's most storied organizations, Gibbs said profits have been hit-and-miss under the current NASCAR system.

"Some years, not every year," she told a NASCAR attorney asking if JGR is a money maker.

Three ofNASCAR's top five drivers, No. 2 andthree-time Daytona 500 winnerDenny Hamlin, No. 3 Chase Briscoe and No. 5 Christopher Bell, race out of the JGR stable.

Despite the massive stakes on the table and the occasional tough words, both sides were remarkably cordial to one another in court on Friday.

When a NASCAR attorney finished his cross-examination of Jordan, he told the all-time basketball great: "My 9-year-old thinks I'm pretty cool today."

Jorden joked that the NASCAR attorney should've been laced up in the former player's famed hight tops in court.

"You're not wearing your Jordans today," Jordan quipped.

Charlie Gile reported from Charlotte, N.C., and David K. Li from New York City.

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Michael Jordan testifies in NASCAR lawsuit, calling the racing body an unfair monopoly

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR's management structure is unfair to its teams and drivers, with money and power in the hands...

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