I recently saw people discovering that Kate Upton is married to baseball player Justin Verlander, and it got me thinking about how invested we’ve become in athletes’ wives and girlfriends. From Taylor Swift cheering on Travis Kelce to Alexandra Saint Mleux’s (now Alexandra Leclerc) F1 paddock outfits, WAGs (“wives and girlfriends” of famous athletes) seem to have developed fan bases that extend far beyond the sports their partners play.
Admittedly, I’ve found myself paying more attention to what someone wore to a Grand Prix than who actually won it (#guilty). Judging by the number of WAG fan accounts and outfit breakdowns on TikTok, I’m not the only one. So why are we so fascinated by WAGs, even when we don’t necessarily follow the sports themselves?
The Paddock Is the New Runway
For some of us, the appeal starts with the fashion. Alexandra Saint Mleux has become a style icon, with her outfits catching Vogue’s attention. What began as appearances alongside F1 driver Charles Leclerc has turned into a following of its own for her style and lifestyle.Â
Psychologists call this social comparison: we size ourselves up against people we admire. Sometimes that’s fun inspiration; sometimes it means comparing your Stauffer Library study fit to someone’s curated Monaco feed.
It’s Almost Like We Know Them
Then there’s the feeling of familiarity that comes from following someone’s life online. Psychologists call these one-sided bonds parasocial relationships. We might recognize a WAG’s dog, know her favourite designers, or feel excited when she announces an engagement, even though we’ve never met her. A 2024 study of over 3,000 people found that we turn to these one-sided bonds for some of the same emotional needs we’d normally go to friends for, like feeling better after a bad day.
The Group Chat Needs to Know
Let’s be real: half the fun is having someone to talk to about it. In an online experiment, researchers found that participants were far more willing to gossip about a favourite celebrity (72%) than about acquaintances (50%) or close friends (32%).Â
The reason for our eagerness is that celebrity gossip comes with less guilt and more excitement. A favourite celebrity influences us, but we can’t influence them back. So talking about them doesn’t feel like a betrayal and won’t ruin a friendship. The researchers also found that gossiping about a favourite celebrity can make people willing to pay more for products linked to them, which might explain the “I need her exact dress” thoughts.Â
Did WAGs Bring Us to Sports, or Were We Already Here?
I was tempted to say that WAGs are bringing women’s attention to more sports, but the data is more mixed. When Taylor Swift started attending Chiefs games, headlines predicted a flood of new female viewers. However, one analysis found the share of women aged 18-49 watching rose by only about 2% at games she attended. With Formula 1, their global audience has grown from 8% women in 2017 to 42%, from a combination of marketing, the “Drive to Survive” show on Netflix, and word of mouth.
So the real appeal of WAG culture might be that it gives us a social, low-pressure way into sports. And while the media still tends to frame these women through their looks and their partners, fans are increasingly following them for their own careers and personalities independent of their relationships.Â
Which brings me back to the internet finding out Kate Upton is married to Justin Verlander. For a lot of people, she wasn’t the WAG; he was the plus-one. The same could be said for Taylor Swift. Maybe it’s time for a new term, since many of these women are accomplished and were famous long before anyone called them a WAG.