Jordyn Woods, 27, is the longtime girlfriend of New York Knicks center and four-time NBA All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, 29. They first made their relationship public in September of 2020, when Woods posted an Instagram shot of the couple on a beach, which she captioned, “I found you, then I found me.”
The couple first started dating in May of 2020. They have no children, and live together in a $14 million Los Angeles home.
Here’s what you need to know about Karl-Anthony Towns’ girlfriend, Jordyn Woods.
1. She Is Close to Will Smith & His Family
Jordyn was born and raised in the Los Angeles area and grew up in close proximity to the Hollywood industry. Until she was 13 years old, she lived in Oak Park, a small unincorporated community in Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles.
At 13, she moved with her family to Calabasas, California, a wealthy suburb that is home to numerous celebrities, including those who would play significant roles in her career as well as her personal life — in particular Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Kylie Jenner.
Jordyn’s father, John Woods, worked as an entertainment industry sound engineer, bringing his expertise to the sitcom that rocketed a young rapper who called himself The Fresh Prince to Hollywood stardom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air starring Will Smith.
She was childhood friends with the Smiths’ son Jaden, and she has said that she considers Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith her “uncle and auntie.”
2. She Was a Reality TV Star
After being introduced to the Kardashian family by Jaden Smith, Jordyn became close friends with Kylie Jenner. Their friendship first put Jordyn into public view, as she appeared in every episode of Jenner’s show Life With Kylie, which ran for nine episodes in August and September of 2017.
She also appeared as “Kangaroo” on the 2019-2020 season of The Masked Singer, performing such tunes as the Donna Summer classic “Hot Stuff,” and *NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye.” She was eliminated in the quarterfinal “Smackdown” round.
Jordyn reportedly had a falling out with Jenner after she was seen exchanging a public kiss with another NBA player, Tristan Thompson, who was dating one of the Kardashian sisters, Khloe, at the time.
Woods and Thompson have both denied that their involvement ever went beyond that single kiss.Jordyn and Kylie rekindled their friendship in 2023 and were seen celebrating courtside at Madison Square Garden, with Jenner’s current boyfriend, the Academy Award-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet, after the Knicks’ Game Four win over the Celtics win their second-round playoff series.
3. Jordyn Woods Has Struggled With Body Image Issues & Advocates for Body Positivity
GettyJordyn Woods in a modeling photo from 2017.
Among her wide range of professional endeavors, Jordyn has a successful modeling career which began when an agent from the Wilhelmina agency saw her Instagram posts.
She is classified as a “plus size” model, which according to Woods is a label that applies to any model of Size 8 or above. While she has embraced her role as an advocate for body positivity, she has also spoken publicly about her struggles with her own body image, and has been forced to deal with body-shaming attacks online.
At the same time, Woods has been attacked for losing weight as well, but she has defended herself from that criticism too.
“I feel like body positivity is loving your body and loving yourself to be the best version of yourself,” Woods has said. “It’s kind of conflicting, but I am definitely just going to continue to be me and do what makes me happy.”
4. How She Met Towns Has Never Been Revealed
On May 21, the same day that the Knicks opened their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Indiana Pacers, Jordyn posted an Instagram image to mark their five-year “anniversary.” Presumably, that means she started dating Towns, known by the nickname KAT (his initials) in late May of 2020.
But they both have said that they knew each other as friends long before they advanced to the more-than-just-friends stage. How they met, however, is something neither Towns nor Woods have ever revealed to their fans.
“We were really good friends before we started dating, and COVID gave us that free time in our life to really get to know each other, because a lot of people don’t really get to know each other and they go into this relationship,” Woods said, as quoted by People.
5. Jordyn & KAT Bonded Over Loss of a Parent
Jordyn’s father, John Woods, passed away in 2017 just two weeks after receiving a cancer diagnosis. KAT lost his mother, Jackie Cruz-Towns, on April 13, 2020, to complications of COVID-19.
Towns was playing for the team that drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick in 2015, the Minnesota Timberwolves, at the time.
“Naturally, we both connected about losing a parent at a very young age,” Jordyn has said. “So it was a very organic relationship, that we’d been best friends for a while.”
Towns agreed, in a separate interview, saying, “She was just helping me throughout that whole time because she had just lost her father, daddy’s girl. And she just lost him tragically to, cancer. Secondly, just truly guide me through the process of losing her.”
