For Puka Nacua, the 2024 season began with a setback. A bursa sac burst in his knee forced the Rams star wide receiver to miss five games, putting his campaign on pause before it could really get going. When he finally returned, the road back wasn’t instant. He needed time to shake off the rust. Then came Week 11 against the New England Patriots. That November, Nacua finally found the end zone, hauling in his first touchdown catch of the season. After everything he’d been through, it was a moment worth savoring.

And perhaps no one savored it more than Hallie Aiono, his then-girlfriend. She watched Nacua finally get the breakthrough he had been waiting for and took to social media to celebrate the moment. “He’s him.” All that love and celebration was just one part of the story. Aiono has now come forward to share the other side, which is a much darker one.

“I have experienced the darkest, darkest days of my life in the last year and a half,” she said in a TikTok, referring to when she was pregnant with Nacua’s son. “I have healed so much. But I also feel like there are some parts of my brain that I am trying to rewire.

“I went from loving somebody so deeply for four years – I felt it in my bones – to experiencing extreme betrayal, abuse, complete neglect from them, in what, it felt like it happened almost overnight.

“A lot of the things that were public affected my mental health. But honestly, the things that were happening in private are what completely crushed me and altered my brain chemistry. Those parts, what people never saw, or know of, are what broke me.”

It is important to note that Aiono did not name Nacua in her video. What once looked like a happy chapter had taken a very different turn by 2025. The fallout between Nacua and Aiono was no longer private, and the situation eventually made its way into a Los Angeles courtroom.

On June 16, 2025, Aiono filed a petition in Los Angeles County seeking to establish Nacua as the father of her child. In the court documents, she said she was 19 weeks pregnant and asked the court to legally affirm Nacua’s parental relationship with the baby.

At the time, though, there was no clear answer as to what had pushed Aiono to file the petition. From the outside, there seemed to be little warning that anything was wrong. The two appeared deeply in love, and if their social media posts were any indication, the relationship seemed to be moving along just fine.

However, the public discussion of the alleged paternity test bothered Aiono, especially when Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor discussed it ‘The Pivot’ podcast in July 2025. It led to rumors that Aiono had cheated.

“While I was trying to figure out how I was going to bring my son into the world, three grown men decided to use my life as entertainment, and post about me on their podcast,” Aiono said about the podcast discussion last year. “I never cheated [on Nacua]. I never questioned who the father was.”

The current situation is much different than the time Nacua and Aiono first met.

Their story had already begun before the NFL entered the picture. Nacua and Aiono first became linked while he was at BYU, though the relationship remained relatively private at first. It wasn’t until 2022 that the pair publicly confirmed they were together, some six months before Nacua heard his name called in the NFL Draft.

There is a possibility their relationship may have started even earlier. They are believed to have begun dating in 2021 after first meeting at a family gathering.

However, Aiono’s revelation comes at a time when Nacua is already entangled with legal trouble.

Pete Nacua’s off-field issues put his 2026 season in jeopardy

The reveal follows Nacua’s other big controversy; he is facing a civil lawsuit for an incident that occurred at a New Year’s party. A woman claims that the WR bit her on the shoulder and allegedly made an anti-Semitic comment at a guest. Nacua checked himself into rehab before the allegations were made public, and has since admitted that he is looking to move past these issues with a new way of life.

According to the latest update, Nacua will be appearing for trial on March 27, 2028, with a final status conference scheduled for March 14 next year.

The new allegations complicate an already tough offseason for Nacua, who remains a crucial part of the Rams’ offense.

Nacua’s case also remains under scrutiny by the league, which is conducting its own investigation. It was expected that Nacua might end up with some form of suspension because of the civil lawsuit, but there hasn’t been any word on where his case stands now. In August, ESPN’s Adam Schefter believed that Nacua might be suspended by the start of the regular season.

He has not been named to the Commissioner’s Exempt list, which features Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs, Denver Broncos outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper, and Seattle Seahawks cornerback Terrion Arnold for now.

But the NFL can announce suspensions when the season has already begun. As of now, what becomes of Nacua’s crucial 2026 season is still a mystery.

Nacua’s NFL contract

Nacua is pretty much one of the pillars in the Rams’ offense, having led the league in receiving yards last year. He has tallied more than 1,000 yards in two of the three seasons he’s played so far, and bagged the 7th spot in the NFL Top 100 this year. And since Matthew Stafford might be suiting up for his last dance, Rams fans will be hoping Nacua gets to play as much as possible.

He is also entering the last year of his contract, making this season even more important. It is highly unlikely that his tenure with the Rams ends soon, but any contract extension will have to factor in the potential suspension. But for what it’s worth, the team is rallying behind the star wideout.

For instance, coach Sean McVay said in May: “I know that when I was younger, and still now, you give people grace, and you try to understand every single thing, and how can you be there to help them continue to just move in the direction that they want, and those things are never-ending journeys.”

Time to see whether the Rams will compromise by suspending a talent like Nacua.