Kate Upton Sizzles In 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue In Three Covers

Kate Upton has landed the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine for the third time, and as if to commemorate the milestone, this time she is getting featured in three separate covers. Upton was featured on the cover of SI for the first time in 2012, back when she was only 19.

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The 24-year-old model didn’t agree to grace the covers of Sports Illustrated again just for the prestige and the money, but also because of the magazine’s focus on body diversity and age inclusion, two advocacies she and SI Swim editor MJ Day share.

In fact, during the Sports Illustrated interview, Kate Upton talks at great length about how she was inspired by the magazine’s focus on inclusivity, even adding that she wants to use her career to inspire others to love themselves no matter how they look.

“To have an issue that focuses on that is really an amazing moment for me because I think it’s important for everyone to be the best they can be, but not to strive to be a company or industry’s idea of perfect,” Upton tells Sports Illustrated. “For SI to emphasize every different type of perfect is really inspiring. Those are the campaigns I want to do and the career I want to have — to inspire women to love themselves.”

Sports Illustrated bucked the trend in 2016 when they featured the first size-16 model, Ashley Graham, in the history of the magazine. The SI Swim 2016 issue also featured three models (Ashley Graham, Ronda Rousey, and Hailey Clauson) in three separate covers — another first for the magazine.

MJ Day said that their decision to feature a size-16 model was part of the reason why Kate Upton agreed to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated again.

“She was proud of SI Swimsuit for taking things in that direction,” Day says. “Kate is the woman who launched a thousand ships and changed the direction of the industry just by being on the cover of Swimsuit. She’s developed a passionate voice about it, advocates for it, and has come under harsh criticism for it. But she maintains you should love your body and celebrate who you are and not try to change for anyone.”

Day says that they didn’t plan on releasing three covers for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2017 at first. It just so happened that Kate Upton looked dashing in every one of the photos and they felt that it would be a waste not to showcase at least three of them in separate covers.

“We didn’t start off with the idea of three covers, regardless of who was on the cover,” he explains. “But when Kate was actually shooting, we were trying so many different looks on her and each photo was coming back just as great as the next.”

Kate Upton has made exercise an integral part of her lifestyle. She views it as a matter of necessity since being fit and healthy gives her the energy required to do long shoots.

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Her fitness guru, Ben Bruno, said that Kate has been tearing it up at the gym since she started training with him.

“She’s insanely strong,” Bruno told People magazine. “Stronger than a lot of athletes I train!”

“She gets excited to set new records in the gym. On some of the things, she’s gotten into friendly competition with Chelsea Handler [another client of Bruno’s], trying to push more weights.”

Kate Upton’s amazing physique can perhaps be attributed to her discipline in sticking to a healthy diet, but Bruno revealed that the model indulges herself from time to time. The trainer revealed that Upton’s favorite treat is doughnuts.

“It’s not all the time, but life’s too short to not have some fun stuff every once in a while!” he said.

Kate Upton and her fiance, Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, have purchased last December a gorgeous $5.25 million home in Beverly Hills, as reported by E! News.

You can read the entirety of Kate Upton’s official interview via the Sports Illustrated website.

[Featured Image by Rommel Demano/Getty Images]