Kate Upton Says Pitcher Wives Have ‘More Nervous Energy’ Than Position-Player Wives

“It’s like I was watching ‘The Real Housewives’ but of baseball,” Kate Upton told Andy Cohen in a recent interview about the early days in her relationship with her now-husband, pitcher Justin Verlander. “I didn’t love to be involved in it, but I loved to just watch.”

Kate and Justin began dating in 2014 and married in 2017, but Kate says the other players’ wives were “not thrilled” about her joining their ranks. She attributed it to the fact that they judged her for not being with Justin when he was “struggling” in the minor leagues — even though, as Kate said, “He didn’t struggle in the minor leagues … Justin was in the minor leagues for like two months. He never had to struggle.”

With a 162 games in the MLB season, Kate has to spend a lot of time in the company of the other baseball players’ wives. “You’d think it would be more of a professional work space, and you’re the wives of this business, but that is not how they look at it,” she explained.

Justin was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 2004, where he stayed until 2017 when he was traded to the Houston Astros and won his first World Series championship. Justin left the Astros after their 2022 championship season to pitch for the New York Mets in 2023 before returning to Houston later that same year. A nine-time MLB All-Star, he has also won three Cy Young awards in his career.

“I feel like I might get in trouble for this,” Kate added. “I think that pitchers’ wives are a little different than position-player wives, because position-player wives — they play every single game, so they can’t be as connected to every single play. I feel there’s like an energy, a more nervous energy, with starting-pitcher wives, because it’s once every five days.”

Stream Kate’s full conversation with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM.