James McCoy Taylor, known for his appearance on the 12th season of “The Bachelorette,” recently shared a troubling personal story on Instagram. He traveled to Birmingham to meet Kristen Saban, daughter of Alabama football coach Nick Saban, believing she was single. To his surprise, he alleges that during his visit, he discovered she was still married and living with her husband.
Taylor expressed his frustration about not being informed of her marital status earlier, stating in his Instagram post, “I was shocked and pissed that this wasn’t made known to me before I came to visit.” He says the revelation led to a falling out, and Saban drove him back to Birmingham, where he flew back to Houston, ending their brief encounter.
The situation escalated when Taylor became the target of a blackmail attempt. He claims that an anonymous blackmailer threatened to leak photographs of him with Kristen to the media, claiming he was a home-wrecker and a liar unless he paid a certain amount. With detailed knowledge of their outing, including specifics about their visit to a local spot, Innisfree, the blackmailer’s threats seemed credible.
Faced with a deadline, Taylor decided to preempt any manipulated revelations by openly sharing his story on Instagram, taking a page from Eminem’s playbook of confronting issues head-on. He clarified, “The truth is I did NOT know that when I flew there.”
In his post, Taylor also shared that he overheard a snippet of a tense conversation between Kristen and her father, Nick Saban, which he found mildly amusing due to his sports affiliations but also felt sympathy for Kristen’s distress.
Taylor added even more context to the Instagram post in the comments:
“Anyway… I’m done with people posting and writing fake crap about me so forgive me for the drama today but if this is going to get out then I’m at least having it come out with the truth.
Don’t know if she’s still with her husband, someone told me she’s talkin to someone else – I have no idea. I don’t care. I wanna be done with this and move on… also don’t want a husband after me thinkin I knew.
I’m faaar from perfect but man – before you judge remember l’ve been blindsided in the face and lost teeth for no reason. FBI went through my parents house for no reason – besides the “news” claiming I went to j6 when I was skiing in Utah that day (like 20 magazines printed that crap).
And much more… people just say and write what they want with no regard for the truth.
Hope this doesn’t cause Kristen or the Saban fam trouble. I think it woulda been worse saying nothing, I don’t want some loser getting paid off of our pain and I’m done taking the fall – sadly, I gotta start lookin out for myself because the media sure won’t. And my family and future family hopefully.
Anyway, glad this is off my chest”