<\/p>\n
Tiffany Haddish is one of 2026’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit<\/em> cover models.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n She said she was inspired by her late grandmother, who was also a swimsuit model.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Haddish kept telling herself she could be a SI<\/em> cover star while working out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Tiffany Haddish<\/a> knows her late grandmother would’ve been so proud to see her on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n The comedian and actress, 46, is one of 34 women across film, sports, social media, fashion, business, and more to appear in the 2026 issue \u2014 and she’s feeling herself.<\/p>\n “I think it is gorgeous,” she told Today<\/em><\/a> on Tuesday of her cover shoot. “I think it is everything that I\u2019ve dreamed of since I was a little girl.”<\/p>\n Haddish added that the photo shoot in Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico, was a full-circle moment since her grandma, Alice Ray<\/a>, was also a swimsuit model in the 1950s and one of the first Black women to model clothing on TV.<\/p>\n “I’m looking at it right now, like, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s me.’ I was watching [the footage from the photo shoot] and just being there and just feeling like, \u2018Wow, I wish my grandma was alive. I wish my grandma was seeing this,'” Haddish said.<\/p>\n She went on to say her grandma used to show her “how to pose and all that stuff,” but Haddish “didn’t grow tall enough” to become a model herself.<\/p>\n “She was like, ‘Yeah, it’s not going to work out for you. But, you know, there’s other things you can do,'” Haddish added. “And so I became a comedian, but I just kept dreaming of it. Kept hoping, wishing. And then now, I’m doing it.”<\/p>\n Haddish also told PEOPLE<\/a> that while healing and training following two meniscus tears in her knees, she began manifesting being a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit<\/em> model.<\/p>\n “I gained all this weight [after the injuries], and I kind of almost gave up all the way until I met [Olympic gold medalist] Al Joyner,” she recalled. “He said he could help me heal my knees and get me back into shape. And as I was getting back into shape, I had put in the back of my mind that I’m a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit<\/em> model.”<\/p>\n “Then it was like, ‘Wait a minute, I could be a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit<\/em> model. I just need to put that out there,'” she added to PEOPLE. “And so, I put it out there. And ta-dah.”<\/p>\n Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our <\/em><\/strong>EW Dispatch newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n