Cincinnati Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. is being sued by his ex-girlfriend, fashion influencer Holly Means, who alleges he refused to return her belongings after their breakup and blocked her from retrieving property from a storage unit. Means, who goes by Holly Luyah online, is seeking more than $25,000 in damages, plus punitive damages, in a civil theft claim.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Means says she was forced out of Brown's Ohio home in June 2025 without notice and wasn't able to collect all of her property before leaving. She claims some of her belongings remain scattered across Oklahoma and Kansas City, while other items are allegedly locked away closer to home. Means says that when she went with police in January to retrieve her property from a storage unit, Brown refused to answer the door.
Means alleges in her filing that Brown acted with ill will or a spirit of revenge, accusing him of withholding her belongings out of anger and spite over the breakup and her subsequent move. Brown, for his part, has denied any wrongdoing and is asking the court to dismiss the case with prejudice. He argues that Means abandoned the property by leaving it behind after their split, and that she showed up at his home unannounced after he had specifically asked her not to.
Two Very Different Accounts of the Same Breakup
The dispute lands squarely on conflicting narratives. Means frames Brown's conduct as deliberate and vindictive, while Brown insists she simply left the items behind and later showed up uninvited. Neither side's version has been resolved in court, and the case remains pending.
Means and Brown share two sons, including their eldest, Orlando Brown III, and a younger son, Sonny, who was born in December 2023 while Brown was in Pittsburgh preparing to face the Steelers — a moment he watched via FaceTime from the locker room before kickoff, according to CBS News. The family had been living together in Brown's Ohio home before the split. Means has since moved back to Oregon with the couple's two children, adding another state to an already sprawling property dispute that spans Ohio, Oklahoma and Kansas City.
What Ohio Law Says About Civil Theft Claims
Means' lawsuit doesn't require any criminal charges against Brown to move forward. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2307.60, a person who suffers property loss tied to an alleged criminal act can pursue civil damages regardless of whether the other party is criminally charged or convicted, according to codes compiled by FindLaw. The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed in 2020 that a prior conviction isn't a prerequisite for this kind of civil suit.
The statute's companion provision, Ohio Revised Code § 2307.61, could raise the stakes further. It allows victims of civil property theft to seek liquidated damages worth three times the value of the property, plus legal costs, provided a formal 30-day written demand for payment was sent before the lawsuit was filed, per the Ohio Employer Law Blog. That treble-damages framework means Brown's financial exposure could extend well beyond the $25,000 baseline named in the complaint, depending on how the case unfolds.
Means' Public Profile and Her Year of Silence
Means built a substantial following before her relationship with Brown became public fodder. She has more than 3.4 million Instagram followers and was previously named to a Forbes list of the top 10 fashion influencers, according to Essentially Sports. Her online presence made her disappearance from social media all the more notable — she stopped posting in April 2024 and stayed quiet online for roughly a year, a hiatus that fueled speculation among followers before news of the couple's June 2025 separation and the current legal dispute surfaced, as reported by the Hindustan Times.
Brown's Standing With the Bengals Remains Secure
The lawsuit arrives even as Brown's career in Cincinnati looks more stable than ever. He signed a four-year, $64.092 million deal with the Bengals in March 2023 that included a signing bonus of more than $31 million — an NFL record for offensive linemen at the time, according to Forbes. Then in March of this year, the Bengals signed him to a contract extension that locks in his spot as starting left tackle through the 2028 season, per Stripe Hype.
Brown joined Cincinnati after winning Super Bowl LVII with the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2023, capping a run that included four consecutive Pro Bowl selections from 2019 through 2022. He was originally drafted in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens, the same franchise where his late father, Orlando “Zeus” Brown Sr., spent nine seasons as an offensive tackle.
For now, the property dispute remains a civil matter working through the courts, with Brown seeking dismissal and Means pressing forward with her claim for damages and the return of her belongings. No trial date or further court action has been reported.
