Haley Kalil stuns in Sports Illustrated shoot amid lawsuit over comments about ex-NFL star husband’s manhood
Haley Kalil is looking to move on amid her bitter legal feud with ex-husband Matt Kalil, the former NFL player.
He launched a lawsuit after she appeared on a podcast and compared his manhood to the size of ‘two soda cans’ during a livestream in November. Kalil said Haley’s comments left him subject to ‘widespread ridicule’.
She denies those claims and insists her remarks are protected under free speech. And as their respective legal teams thrash out the case, the model has got back to business by posing in a new shoot with Sports Illustrated.
The 33-year-old stunned in a red strapless one-piece for the shoot, which was held in Baja Sur in Mexico.
She also shared a behind-the-scenes video on her YouTube page.
‘Guess who’s back in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit,’ she captioned the footage, showing a picture from the shoot alongside video of her celebrating.
Model Haley Kalil, 33, posed for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit to kickstart her 2026
Her 2025 ended with an unfortunate legal fued with her ex-husband, NFL’s Matt Kalil
The shoot, which has also featured the likes of Olivia Dunne and Brooks Nader, was held in December 2025, one month after she first made the controversial comments about her ex-husband.
Kalil has since insisted that her words were mean to be complimentary and that she was describing her own ‘sexual trauma’ in her seven-year marriage. The couple divorced in 2022.
She accused the former Minnesota Viking of ‘cherry-picking’ her words to paint a false narrative of the incident. And on Tuesday, Haley’s legal counsel – Matthew Bialick – told TMZ in January that they ‘believe the motion will be granted.’
‘We moved to dismiss the complaint because Minnesota has a longstanding commitment to free speech, which is important now more than ever,’ Bialick said.
‘Allowing a lawsuit to proceed against a woman for sharing a truthful, autobiographical account of sexual trauma would directly undermine those core values.’
In her filing, she insists she was not mocking the ex-NFL star, but rather providing a ‘truthful, autobiographical account’ of the ‘anatomical incompatibility’ that destroyed their marriage.
Her legal team states that their ‘loving union… was ultimately hindered by an unfortunate physical incompatibility’ that rendered a ‘normal sexual relationship impossible’.
Matt Kalil was a fourth-overall pick for the Vikings who made the Pro Bowl in his rookie season
Haley wants the court to toss the lawsuit, arguing that she cannot be held civilly liable for sharing her own life experiences.
Her lawyers contend that Matt is seeking to ‘hold a woman in the public eye civilly liable for providing a truthful, autobiographical account of sexual trauma she suffered and described as having led to the end of a highly publicized celebrity marriage with an NFL football star’.
Attorneys for the former NFL player, however, have firmly rejected this defense.
Ryan Saba, representing Matt Kalil, scoffed at the motion to dismiss, telling TMZ that Haley ‘wantonly disclosed private and intimate details’ for the purpose of ‘profiting’.
