Camile Kostek is revealing her true experience was as a New England Patriots WAG.
Kostek shared that when her boyfriend, New England Patriots legend Rob Gronkowski, was in the NFL, other wives judged her because she didn’t have a ring on her finger. Gronk retired from the NFL in 2022.
“I felt like I was seen as a lesser-than girlfriend because I didn’t have a ring on my finger,” she shared on an episode of Kristin Cavallari’s Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour per US Weekly.
However, the tables turned because Kostek who had been dating Gronk on-and-off for 10 years, shared that, “The woman that’s coming to mind [who] judged me the most, she’s divorced.”
The couple originally met in 2013 and were first romantically linked in 2015.
“Rob and I met when I was 21 years old, and we’ve been in each other’s lives for 10 years,” she said.
While they’ve known each other for over a decade, they had some ups and downs which required them to break up for the first time two years into their relationship.
“First breakup was in 2017, but I think that some of the best things that changed the trajectory of my life came from this f—ing breakup that broke me but also allowed me to get in the zone. I didn’t care about dating. I felt like I was asexual,” she shared.
While Kostek refers to their 2017 as the “first time” she has not spoken on the second time they decided to take a break.
Looking back, the breakup was able to allotted her time to think of landing a major goal for Kostek — a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover.
“In that year, I decided to audition for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, which was on my bucket list,” the model continued. “I cared about pursuing the things that brought me joy. There were so many things I was destined to want to do, and then I happened to date an athlete, and it was like, ‘You are a WAG.’” (WAGS is an acronym meaning wives and girlfriends of sports stars.) Kostek was able to land a cover in 2019.
The two have such busy schedules but they keep a hold on one another by sharing their calendars.
“We read our calendars to each other,” Kostek laughed. “We don’t spend every waking moment together, so it’s exciting for us to get on the phone. It’s a common thing weekly to get on the phone together when we’re in different states and put out our calendars.
“It was my sister’s wedding in St. Thomas, and we had our calendars together. We were down on the beach, and I said, ‘I have the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit launch. It’s a big one. It’s the Legends issue. So, I’m going to be in New York for the first half of the week and then the second half of the week in Miami. And he’s like, ‘Perfect, I have a podcast to record in New York. I’ll be there for your event.’ And I’m like, ‘Perfect.’”
As Kostek thought about the beginning of her relationship, she shared with Fox News Digital that she broke a rule when she made the roster as a Patriots cheerleader in 2013.
“There is that rule where [you] cannot date the players,” Kostek told Fox News Digital at the time. “I broke that one, but I kept it a secret for a little while. It was worth it in the end.
In 2023, Gronk told PEOPLE that the two have “definitely talk about” getting engaged, but the timing at the moment is tough since “we’re both super busy with our careers right now.”
