JHud's soft launch blowback

JHud's soft launch blowback,Jennifer Hudson's fans sound the alarm about Common and his history with women after she encourages them to wish him a happy birthday, seemingly soft launching their new relationship online

JHud's soft launch blowback

Jennifer Hudson’s fans have her back. Yesterday, she shared this photo on Instagram, showing some love to Common on his birthday.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Jennifer Hudson (@iamjhud)

But even though she was encouraging her fan base to join her in sending him birthday wishes, they sounded the alarm about him instead. People flooded the comments saying she can “do better”, pointing out that he had “hurt many” women before and called him “emotionally unavailable.”

It’s not the first time they’ve been seen together or had photos taken together, but it did lead to people asking whether this was the “soft launch” of their relationship.

Dating rumours started back in 2022 when JHud and Common started spending more time together on the set of an upcoming movie they’re both in called Breathe. Back in November, TMZ shared this photo of him picking her up at her talk show studio. And more recently in February, they were seen out at Nobu enjoying dinner together.

In terms of her fans having concerns, they’re not entirely out of line. Common has been linked to several women, including Erykah Badu, Taraji P. Henson, Angela Rye and Serena Williams. Most recently, though, he dated Tiffany Haddish and it was suggested that their breakup was due to the couple “not feeding” their relationship, with busy schedules blamed as the reason for the split. But in conversation with Hollywood Unlocked, Tiffany disputed that.

“I was disappointed. I was very disappointed. I was like, ‘Oh, OK. ‘Cause that’s not what you told me, but OK,’” she said. “He might be the type of person that never really settles with somebody. Maybe he’s like, you know, like a bee going from flower to flower to flower. I don’t know. I wish him nothing but joy and happiness, you know. He will always be cool.”

Recently, I joined a Facebook group dedicated to women trying to figure out if they were dating the same guy. With more than 40,000 members in the group, you’d be amazed at what unfolds in there. Women have found photos of their husbands in the group and have found out that their long-term partners are actively pursuing other women on dating apps.

When you apply for a job, you can go on a platform like Glassdoor and read about company reviews. When you want to stay at a hotel, you can go on a platform like TripAdvisor and see what other people have to say about their stay. But when you make the decision to start dating someone, spending time and money building a relationship, it can be hard to get honest feedback about who they might be at their core.

Sure, that’s the purpose of dating – figuring out who someone is and deciding whether that works well enough for you to continue pursuing something. But what I love about JHud’s fans pointing out Common’s dating history and letting her know she can do better is just the perspective and control it gives her.

Her last relationship, which was with her son’s father, David Otunga, and spanned a decade, ended in 2017 and involved restraining orders, emergency protection orders and allegations he had violated a confidentiality agreement. So it’s safe to say her fans just want to see her in a happy, healthy relationship this time around.

Going back to the idea of a “soft launch”, we’ve heard this a lot over the last year or so. It’s the idea that you share your love interest on your social media not necessarily to announce your relationship but to see what the response to that announcement might be. And if this is any indication, I wonder if Jennifer’s browsing through her replies…