Camille Kostek is well aware of the stereotype surrounding a WAG like her—the high-gloss hair, sideline selfies, and a life centered around the man in uniform. However, she also knows that this image fades as soon as she enters a room, revealing a much deeper side to her than the “wives and girlfriends” of professional athletes stereotype suggests. Before the Sports Illustrated cover or the Wipeout mic, Kostek racked up what she proudly calls “seventeen years’ worth of dance training,” earned a communications degree, and turned a cheerleading gig with the New England Patriots into a multimillion-dollar personal brand.
That résumé is precisely why Kristin Cavallari sat down with her on Let’s Be Honest. Cavallari opens the show by gushing that Kostek is “one of the realest, coolest, most down-to-earth chicks on the planet” and praises how the model “talks a lot about relationships and why putting yourself first is really important.” From the moment the microphones click on, the conversation feels less like celebrity chatter and more like a pep talk for any woman determined to keep her ambitions intact, no matter who she’s dating.
Kostek unpacks the label that once made her bristle, spins hard-won breakups into career pivots, and shares how open communication keeps her and her boyfriend, Rob Gronkowski, thriving without a ring.
Kostek admits she has never loved the WAG acronym because it “almost feels like that is your identity,” yet she refuses to discard it. Instead, she reframes the term as a small accessory tacked onto her name, never the headline. Cavallari nods along, pointing out how tabloids “love to put women in a box for who they’ve dated,” before applauding Kostek’s insistence that every partner should cultivate an identity beyond the game-day glow.
Those convictions took shape during the couple’s undercover years. Team rules forced Kostek to “hide” the relationship and sneak her Jeep into Gronkowski’s garage so no one would connect the dots. She values that hush-hush phase because they “really got to know each other,” and it taught her to guard personal boundaries.
Even when love felt rock solid, she reminded Gronk, “Dance can’t break up with me, but you, sir, can,” then laced up her boots for one more season on principle. Protecting her craft positioned her for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit search, acting classes in Los Angeles, and a portfolio of brand deals that belonged entirely to her.
A 2017 split left Kostek “truly broken and beaten,” yet she credits that low for pushing her into the boldest moves of her life—submitting her SI Swimsuit audition tape, relocating cross-country, and landing her first film role.
She reflects that “some of the best things in [her] life” came from the split” flipping heartache into rocket fuel. Along the way, online trolls tried to police her body. Still, she recalls Gronkowski’s steady mantra that she must not “allow any of that to have access to your aura,” a line she now treats as an emotional firewall.
Curious followers still wonder why Kostek and Gronkowski remain unmarried. But for Kostek, the answer is simple. She doesn’t believe “marriage and a ring on [her] finger will determine [her] happiness” or their loyalty to one another. She wants any proposal to emerge from Gronkowski’s heart, not social media pressure.
Until then, they share homes in Massachusetts and Florida, co-parent rescue dog Ralphie, and protect the everyday rituals that keep them close. When conflict arises, she speaks first because every honest conversation “grows us closer together, and then the sex is amazing,” proving that transparency is their real MVP.
Kostek’s WAG wisdom dismantles the idea that a woman must choose between the spotlight and the sidelines. By treating her relationship as a chapter rather than the whole story, she shows that labels can’t stick unless you let them. From covert rookie romance to cover model triumph, the former cheerleader keeps cheering loudest for herself—and invites every ambitious woman to do the same.
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