The Untold Truth Of Camille Kostek

Former football star Rob Gronkowski is pretty much a household name these days. Gronkowski, best known by the nickname "Gronk," played for the New England Patriots alongside star quarterback Tom Brady and under head coach Bill Belichick for his entire professional career from 2010 until he announced his retirement in March 2019. For almost half the time Gronkowski took the field as a Patriots tight end, girlfriend Camille Kostek stood by his side. Kostek and Gronkowski first sparked romance rumours in 2015, when the football player began making appearances on her Instagram alongside captions like, "friday night date night" — super subtle. 

Even though the pair were first linked in 2015, they've played coy about the status of their relationship over the years. In 2016, Gronkowski told E! News that his Valentine's Day plans were non-existent, which is typically only true for either a single person or a person who is going to be single very soon. Another holiday spent apart? New Year's Eve 2017. On that day, Kostek was spotted with American Idol winner Nick Fradiani, according to Page Six. Even still, from the looks of recent Instagram posts, it appears the two are still very much together right now. With over 600,000 Instagram followers, Kostek is certainly not eclipsed by Gronk's (very large) shadow. But who exactly is Gronk's leading lady, anyway?

Camille Kostek got her big break as a New England Patriots cheerleader back in 2013 at the age of 20. The same year, she also landed the cover of the annual Patriots' swimsuit calendar featuring the team's cheerleaders. In hindsight, the cover might have sparked her desire to pursue modeling as a career — more on that later. The 27-year-old only cheered on the team for two seasons before hanging up her pom-poms. She told Fox News that it was at that time that she was first formally introduced to her now-beau. "We first got in touch once I resigned from the team," she explained. "I always knew who he was before I was even a cheerleader. I knew who he was on the roster. I just never paid any mind. Once I resigned is when we finally met." 

The blonde bombshell has never discussed the reason she called it quits on the squad after just two years, especially since the Patriots allow cheerleaders to stay on for up to four years. However, the fact that she just so happened to start dating Gronkowski mere months after resigning points toward a potential forbidden romance, since interacting with players was a big no-no, according to the aforementioned Fox News interview. 

When Kostek said goodbye to cheering, she cast her sights on a new career path: modeling. She signed with her first agency in Boston in 2015 and one of the first campaigns she booked was with Dune Jewelry, according to Haute Living. By 2016, Kostek was ready to move on to bigger and better things, so she moved across the country to Los Angeles to really kick start her new career. She hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream of being a Sports Illustrated model. However, she was immediately met with criticism from agents who told her that she wouldn't make it if she didn't make some changes to her appearance, but she didn't let that deter her. "I was discouraged meeting agents, who told me to take a certain amount of weight off," she told Haute Living. "I could have taken my body to that extreme, but that's not what I stand for as an older sister and a female. I was able to present myself to Sports Illustrated without an agent in a 60-second video talking about my real-life experience and how I got here." 

Kostek's persistence paid off, and she found herself as one of two women selected as the first-ever Sports Illustrated Swim rookies to be selected via an open casting call. In addition to landing the coveted rookie slot, she was also selected as the 2019 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model. You might even say that Kostek is giving former SI cover stars like Kate Upton and Danielle Herrington a run for their money! 

She can dance, she can model, she can ... act? Kostek is not just another pretty face content with dominating magazine covers. She's also interested in taking her talents to the big screen. Kostek made her film debut in the 2018 comedy I Feel Pretty starring Amy Schumer. It seems she definitely caught the acting bug as she is set to appear in an upcoming Ryan Reynolds comedy called Free Guy, slated for release in July 2020.  

In addition to showing up in film, Kostek has also taken on a couple of hosting and reporter gigs. From 2016 to 2017, she was a reporter for New England Sports Network's show Dirty Water TV — a show all about New England's nightlife scene — where she covered a variety of sporting events. In 2018, she hosted a red carpet for Maxim's Hot 100 Experience. 

Camille Kostek seems to be a rising star in her own right. And she's not the only New England Patriots girlfriend/wife making solo moves. Interested in learning more about the secret lives of some of your favorite football players other-halves? Look no further.