The third season of The White Lotus is finally back on our screens, meaning it's time to get to know the new bunch of holidaymakers who will be making memories and causing mischief.
Aside from Natasha Rothwell returning as Belinda, this Thailand-based instalment will introduce fans to a fresh cast, featuring Aimee Lou Wood, Sarah Catherine Hook, Walter Goggins, Sam Nivola, Michelle Monaghan and Carrie Coon, to name a few.
Who plays Kate in White Lotus?
Clearly delighted to have been brought on board as girls' trip jet-setter Kate in season three, Leslie Bibb has been sharing back-to-back Instagram posts featuring her White Lotus press junket outfits. Promoting the series launch date (16 February), Leslie wrote, 'join us… don't forget your passport bbs… oh, swipe and say hi to kate'.
Leslie admitted that joining the cast of a show with such stellar predecessors - including Sydney Sweeney, Aubrey Plaza, Leo Woodall and Theo James - does pile on the pressure.
She told You magazine, 'It’s like you board this train, the White Lotus train. If I’m being honest – and it’s not really a sexy answer – they’re such big shoes to fill and it’s such a beloved show, an all-eyes-on-it sort of show, you feel there’s a lot of pressure to not f**k up, which is a terrible way to start a job because you want to go into it being fearless. But I just always knew that [director] Mike [White] wouldn’t let us f**k up, so we were going to be OK.’
Leslie also took The White Lotus premiere as an opportunity to reflect on the experience she had on the series, writing, 'The White Lotus premiere night felt like a fever pitch… the dress, the glam, crossing the finish line for what will prove to be one of the most incredible working experiences of my life… thank you mike white and everyone at hbo for giving me #Kate… i will be forever changed from this past year… as the kids say, it slaps…'
Before you meet Kate, the latest visitor to experience the renowned White Lotus resort, let's get to know the woman who plays her.
Who is Leslie Bibb?
Leslie is an actress and model who was born in North Dakota and raised in Virginia. Even though she once had aspirations to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a political campaign manager, her disposition led her down a different path.
Reflecting on spending her childhood in a 'tiny country town', Leslie said, 'I had a strong imaginary world and could play by myself, which I think is imperative for a good actor.'
But before she made headway in the acting world, Leslie fell into modelling. In 1990, a 16-year-old Leslie won a joint pursuit spearheaded by The Oprah Winfrey Show and Elite Agency, which involved a nationwide search to find a promising new model. From there, the ambitious teen signed a contract with Elite Agency in New York, which led to a trip to Japan - and the opportunity to grace ample magazine front covers.
Then, in 1996, she made her TV debut in crime drama Pacific Blue.
How old is Leslie Bibb?
Leslie is 51 and celebrates her birthday on 17 November. After turning 50 in 2023, Leslie wrote on Instagram, 'how i feel after the past two weeks of celebrating my birthday…content, loved, safe, exhausted, contemplative, soft, full, and wish i could do it all again because it was perfection'.
Which TV shows and films has Leslie Bibb been in?
In 1999, two years after gaining her first recurring role in The Big Easy, Leslie starred in drama Popular and won a Teen Choice Award. She is also a Marvel actress, having starred in Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and What If…? More recently, she's played Grace Sampson / Lady Liberty in Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy, and Dinah Donohue in period series Palm Royale.
Is Leslie Bibb in a relationship?
Yes, Leslie has been dating actor Sam Rockwell since 2007, after they met at West Hollywood hotspot Chateau Marmont. Despite the actress recalling how she told him she wanted nothing serious, she laughed in an interview, 'I think three weeks later, I was, like, "I love you so much".'
The pair have had no qualms about mixing business with pleasure. They both starred in Iron Man 2 (2010), Don Verdean (2015) and The Dark of Night (2017).
In August 2017, Leslie sparked speculation that she and Sam had tied the knot when she signed off an Instagram post, 'The Rockwells'. But no marriage was ever confirmed.
In October 2023, Leslie marked their anniversary with a sweet message which read, 'sweet sixteen sammy …was this from the first year, maybe the second, who knows we were babies and all the time is flying by and blurring into one helluva a ride with you…i feel very lucky to get to love this human and even luckier to be loved by him…give someone you [love] a squeeze today and look them in the eye and tell them how you feel about them…it does the body good…'.
In her interview with You magazine, Leslie admitted that the hardest part of filming The White Lotus was the time she spent apart from Sam. Their typical rule is no matter where they are, they try to see each other every three weeks. But during her six-month spell in Thailand filming The White Lotus, Sam was only able to make it over once.
Leslie said, 'He was shooting in South Africa, so we ended up having to go three months. I had to go to South Africa. Then he finished and came back with me so I could finish in Bangkok.'
Do Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell have children?
No, they don't. In an interview with The Guardian in 2007, Sam admitted he 'definitely doesn't want to be a parent'. He explained, 'It’s not my bag. It’s weird, I don’t get children, I don’t quite understand it. I think being an only child means you learn to live in your own world… But also, children are a lot of work. I have so much respect for parents. I suppose the end result is I feel I have too much to do.'
More recently, Sam doubled down on his stance on fatherhood, telling The Standard, 'Leslie and I are very happy, we have a good life. We just like it the way it is. We don’t want kids. It’s interesting when you tell people this. They get very upset with you. I know more and more couples who don’t have kids.
'Listen, if I knew they’d turn out great, then maybe - but there’s just no guarantee. Also, I don’t want to be selfish and be a bad parent. My dad was a single parent, it takes a lot to be a parent.'
What is Leslie Bibb's net worth?
Thanks to her lucrative modelling and acting career, Leslie is estimated to be worth $4 million.
Millie Payne is a News and Entertainment Writer for Grazia. She has specialised in showbiz interviews, features, articles and roundups for over three years and loves combining her love for writing, talking and all things popular culture.