Kate Upton is for the second consecutive year the cover girl for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. To the 20-year-old, 5-feet-10-inch tall model fell the honor to be the face (and body) of the magazine in its 50th anniversary.
The 2013 edition of the highly reputed magazine is set to be officially unveiled Monday night on CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman,” and will hit the newsstands Tuesday.
Upton’s first appearance in a Swimsuit issue was as a rookie in 2011 – Irina Shayk was the cover girl.
This year the 17 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models journeyed to all seven continents, including stunning sites like African dunes and Asian cliffs.
Kate, however, was surrounded by lots of ice in Antarctica. The cover shot displays her clad only in a white, fur-lined parka and bikini bottom. Out of a dozen or so photos in which she appears, the cover shot "is the most clothes I'm wearing in the whole issue," Upton said in a phone interview Monday.
The photo shoot stretched for 10 December days (Antarctica's "summer"). Some of the photos, including the cover, were taking from the base ship, which also carried the team from one icy land shooting site to another.
No wonder Kate returned home in Florida ill.
“I was very, very sick,” she said. “I don't think you can go to Antarctica and stand in a bikini without that happening. But I didn't die, and I'm OK now."
