Former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas has publicly cut ties with Kayla Gabbard and KG Ministries, the evangelical Christian baptism ministry she had been openly promoting for years.
The announcement came in the wake of serious allegations against ministry leader Kayla Gabbard, who stands accused of grooming a teenage boy she had welcomed into her own family home.
Namajunas posted a measured but firm statement across her social media platforms:
“I no longer publicly endorse Kayla Gabbard Ministries. According to scripture and requirements for leadership and my own personal beliefs I cannot support this ministry. This is hard as someone who understands constant criticism as a public figure. I don’t want to come across as self righteous in any way. I am praying that some issues will be adequately addressed and this can ultimately be edifying for all believers. For now, I pray that anyone deciding to be led by this ministry prays for discernment. I am also grateful for anyone who has had a positive experience and has been blessed. May the most high YAH have mercy and bless everyone.”
Fellow UFC athlete Bryce Mitchell was among those who responded to the post, offering his support.
He wrote: “Great job and you and your husband are a church! Two or more people spreadin the Word. Great leadership.”
According to sources, the allegations center on Kayla Gabbard, who co-runs the social media-forward KG Ministries alongside her husband of over a decade. The ministry built a substantial following through viral TikTok videos documenting public baptisms, positioning itself as a Spirit-led grassroots movement.
At the heart of the controversy is a young man identified as Luke, the son of Chara King, a close friend of the Gabbards and a member of their ministry circle.
Luke was brought into the Gabbard family home under what appeared to be a sincere mentorship arrangement, with the understanding that he would be guided by Kayla and eventually participate in the ministry’s baptism outreach work, as the ministry had once done for him.
According to accounts that have since circulated online, Kayla cultivated an inappropriate relationship with Luke while her husband, who had been responsible for filming and editing much of the ministry’s social media content, was kept in the dark.
Photographs emerged of Kayla reclining across Luke’s lap in the backseat of a car, reportedly captured on his phone during one of the ministry’s scheduled baptism events.
The situation came to a head when Kayla’s husband reportedly caught the two kissing inside the family home, after which Luke was removed from the residence he had been invited into.
Rather than offering a clear-eyed acknowledgment of what had taken place, Kayla turned to TikTok to frame her actions in spiritual terms. She described what happened as an assault by the enemy and made clear she had no intention of stepping away from her baptism work, arguing that doing so would be playing into the devil’s hands.
She also disputed the photographs, claiming they were AI-generated, a defense that landed poorly with many observers, particularly after Luke’s mother, Chara King, publicly confirmed that the allegations were true.
Luke himself had shared his own testimony on Kayla’s social media pages, but those posts were subsequently removed, and comments questioning her conduct have reportedly been scrubbed as well.
Kayla did acknowledge Luke’s existence in her response, but not in the way many expected. She characterized him as “grown,” pointing to his recent high school graduation and the fact that he had just turned 19.
Critics were quick to note that the distance between a newly minted 19-year-old and a woman approaching 40, who is herself the mother of middle-school-aged sons, tells a story that age alone does not fully address. What drew the most pointed reaction was Kayla’s decision to refer to Luke as her “Judas,” casting herself as a figure who had been led astray rather than one who had led another person there.
Adding to the unease was Kayla’s demeanor throughout the TikTok apology, which many who watched it described as more self-assured than remorseful. Luke, meanwhile, returned home, where his mother has spoken publicly in support of his account.
Following a roughly six-week period of reduced public activity, during which baptism events continued under the ministry’s volunteers without Kayla at the helm, she has since returned to active ministry life and was recently reported to be traveling to Florida for a new baptism event.
The volunteers who surround her, many of whom restructured their lives around the ministry, continue to be present.
Namajunas’s decision to speak out has drawn additional conversation given certain details of her own personal history. She is married to former UFC heavyweight Pat Barry, and by the couple’s own public accounts, Barry entered her life when she was 14 years old and began pursuing a romantic relationship with her from the age of 17.
