Kate Upton

Background

Katherine Elizabeth Upton was born on June 10, 1992, in St. Joseph, Michigan, to a state tennis champion, Shelley Fawn, and a high school athletics director, Jefferson Matthew Upton. She has three siblings: Laura Upton, David Upton, and Christie Williams. As a child, she attended the Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy. During high school, she competed in national-level competitions, such as the American Paint Horse Association Championship, and won three Reserve World Championships.

Upton first signed with Elite Model Management when she was 15 before eventually signing with I.M.G. Models after relocating to New York. She booked her first modeling photoshoots with companies like Garage in 2011. The same year, she became the face of Guess and landed her first acting role in “Tower Heist.” She did several shoots that unfortunately received negative feedback, so she went back to modeling. In 2014, Upton became the new face of Bobbi Brown and won a “People” magazine award for ‘People’s Sexiest Woman,’ which gained her thousands of new fans. Since then, Upton has worked alongside photographers like Steven Meisel and has been part of commercials and campaigns for brands like David Yurman and Bare Necessities.

Upton met Justin Verlander while shooting for an M.L.B. commercial but only got into a relationship with him in 2014 after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, a year before. In 2017, she and Verlander, an American professional baseball pitcher, got married in Tuscany, Italy. A year later, Upton gave birth to a daughter whom she named Genevieve.