14 DAY TRIAL // Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Kate Upton’s romance was probably one of the worst-kept secrets in showbiz, but it’s not a secret anymore. Maks himself has confirmed dating the stunning model, saying she’s “an amazing person.”
The two were first linked in the press in June this year, with photos of them on dates emerging shortly afterwards. Last month, they were photographed holding hands, but they still insisted they were just good friends.
As they put it at the time, just because you’re holding hands with someone doesn’t mean you’re that person’s lover. Maks is finally letting the cat out of the bag: yes, he and Kate are an item and they’re very happy, having an excellent time together.
“She's an amazing person. We have an incredible time together, and, you know, I definitely didn’t see that coming and I think neither did she,” he tells Us Weekly.
“We enjoy each other's company very much and like I said, she's a great girl that I never thought anything romantic like this could have happened,” the dancing pro adds.
As it happens, Maks isn’t the only one to speak so highly of the Sports Illustrated model, who is arguably one of the hottest models right now. Elizabeth Berkley, the partner on this season of Dancing With the Stars of Maks’ brother Val, also shares the same opinion of Kate.
“I think she's awesome. She's a great girl, and we're great friends. She's an incredible chick and we have a great time,” she says for the same media outlet.
“Awesome” is a word pretty much everyone in the industry and the media uses for Kate. She’s relatively new to the scene but has had an amazing climb because she’s gorgeous (of course), funny, relatable and, perhaps just as important, not a standard model size.
Though in real life she’d probably be labeled “thin,” Kate is actually “curvy” in the fashion world. She’s also very proud of her curves and refuses to starve herself, which is an attitude very rare in the industry.