Kate Upton?Phaninc She may as well be Tashi Duncan to her daughter. 

While the model's 5-year-old daughter Genevieve "Vivi" may not have seen Zendaya serve a ball in Challengers, she is convinced her mom is hitting aces—likely because her dad, Justin Verlander, is an athlete himself. 

"She just recently told me that she thought I was a tennis player," Kate exclusively told E! News in a joint interview with Laurieann Gibson May 14 at Disney's Upfront presentation in New York City. "She knew I would go play tennis for fun. So I guess because Justin is athletic and plays baseball, she's like, ‘That's a job!'"

But it's not as though Kate is keeping Vivi in the dark about her career. In fact, the kindergartener has seen her mom at work including her upcoming Hulu show, Dress My Tour. As Kate noted, "She came to set with us."

Genevieve has been known to mix up her parents' professions in the past. She used to be convinced her dad—who is a starting pitcher for the Houston Astros—was a golfer. Luckily, she is now familiar with his craft.

"She knows that he's a baseball player now," Kate, who wed Justin in 2017, clarified. "She goes to school part time in Houston, so she definitely knows that he plays baseball now."

But Vivi's unfamiliarity with her parents' work may just be emblematic of her quiet childhood. Kate and Justin for the most part keep their daughter out of the spotlight, but they've both shared loving messages to her in the past. 

After all, Justin shared his favorite post-game ritual in a 2022 Instagram video of Vivi running into his arms, captioning it, "The best way to end a game."

Meanwhile, Kate can't get enough of motherhood. 

"She changed our lives for the better and I can't imagine my life without her sweet laughter and snuggles," she penned in a birthday post for Vivi in 2019. "I love my little peanut!"

—Reporting by Kathy Buccio

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