Susie Celek – born Susie Johnsen – attended the University of Cincinnati alongside Brent Celek, built a business empire in Philadelphia while raising four children together. She has continued to carve her own path as a fitness instructor and entrepreneur long after their divorce around 2015.
Brent Steven Celek was born on January 25, 1985, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended La Salle High School before playing college football for the Cincinnati Bearcats, where he earned the UC Claude Rost Award as the team’s Most Valuable Player and made the second-team All-Big East Conference.
Not invited to the 2007 NFL Scouting Combine, he was nonetheless selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round – 162nd overall – of the 2007 NFL Draft.
Celek went on to play all 11 of his NFL seasons in Philadelphia, finishing his career with 398 receptions for 4,998 yards and 31 touchdowns. His 10-catch performance in the 2008 NFC Championship Game remains an Eagles postseason record and ranks among the top tight end playoff games in NFL history.
He was part of the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII championship roster in 2017 before retiring in August 2018. Since then, he returned to the organization in February 2020 as a personnel consultant alongside former teammate Darren Sproles.
Susie Celek – Born Susie Johnsen – Was Brent’s College Sweetheart at Cincinnati and Later Built Her Own Identity Through Entrepreneurship, Fitness, and Family
Susie Johnsen and Brent Celek met while both were attending the University of Cincinnati. While Brent was catching passes for the Bearcats, Susie was competing in the water. She was an All-American swimmer and served as captain of the University of Cincinnati women’s crew team.
She graduated with a degree in communications and went on to work for TEAM Enterprises, a promotional brand management company.
Her early career in Philadelphia was as active as her college days. While Brent was establishing himself as the Eagles’ starting tight end, Susie was building a professional life alongside the team’s community.
She worked in experiential marketing, trained as a boxer, and threw herself into charity work during the couple’s early years in the city.
The business venture that put Susie firmly on Philadelphia’s radar came in 2011, when she co-founded Skin Palette, an airbrush tanning salon, alongside best friend and business partner Julie Dorenbos, wife of Eagles long snapper Jon Dorenbos.
Susie received professional esthetics training from Aveda Institutes, and the two opened the salon’s first location in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse neighborhood.
The business later expanded with a satellite location inside The Bellevue on South Broad Street in 2012, serving clients from the Main Line, South Jersey, and West Chester.
Skin Palette earned “Best of Philadelphia” recognition, and the two owners became familiar faces in Philadelphia media, appearing on local television and radio to discuss the business. Their work extended to runway events and local charity appearances.
Susie’s athletic background informed her approach to fitness and wellness throughout this period – boxing was a regular part of her life alongside running and training.
Susie and Brent’s marriage produced four children together, with the youngest born in 2019.
The individual names of the children have not been publicly confirmed by either parent – both have kept details of their kids’ lives away from public view, a decision that held even as Susie maintained some personal social media presence through the years.
The couple divorced around 2015, according to multiple reports, though neither Brent nor Susie has spoken publicly about the circumstances or timing.
The divorce came during the final stretch of Brent’s NFL career, with the two having been together from their University of Cincinnati days. Brent later married Celeste Celek, and the couple settled in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
After the divorce, Susie remained in the Cincinnati area and shifted her professional focus toward fitness instruction.
According to her Instagram – where she goes by @susiecelek with more than 5,000 followers – she currently teaches yoga at LA Fitness Crescent Springs on Sunday mornings and leads Cardio Pilates classes at LA Fitness Kenwood on Sundays and Tuesdays. She also continues to offer certified airbrush spray tan services.
Her Instagram bio – part fitness schedule, part business card – reflects how deliberately she has built a post-NFL-wife identity that has nothing to do with Brent’s career. The four children she and Brent share are kept away from that public presence.
Susie’s background in swimming, boxing, spray tanning, and now yoga and pilates instruction is not a scattered resume. It is a consistent thread: someone who has built her life around athletic performance, wellness, and body confidence – the same themes that ran through Skin Palette’s founding mission and her college years on the crew team.
She also made a small mark in entertainment, appearing in the 2016 film Fight Valley, an action movie, and in an episode of Kendra on Top in 2012.
Neither was a major acting pursuit, but both added to the picture of someone present in Philadelphia’s cultural landscape far beyond being an Eagles tight end’s wife.
The four children Susie and Brent share are now spread between two households as both parents have moved forward.
Brent’s post-football path has gone through real estate – he is a part-owner of Pando Mortgage, LLC, based in Media, Pennsylvania – and his front office role with the Eagles. Susie’s path has gone through fitness and wellness. Neither has spoken publicly about co-parenting arrangements.
What is documented is that Susie raised these children through most of Brent’s NFL career, through a high-profile life as an Eagles wife in Philadelphia, through running her own business, and through a divorce, all while maintaining her own professional identity and athletic life that predated her years as a public figure.
In late March 2026, Susie brought herself back into the Philadelphia sports conversation by going Instagram official with Hollis Thomas, a former Eagles defensive tackle who played for the team from 1996 to 2005 – two full seasons before Brent arrived in 2007.
The two men never played together. Susie posted a video of the pair sharing affectionate moments on various dates, captioning it with a line about being stuck on him, set to Lionel Richie’s “Stuck On You.” Thomas, who spent a decade with Philadelphia and later co-hosted Sports Radio 94.1 WIP, confirmed the relationship through his own social media.
The announcement drew immediate attention in Philly sports circles, not for drama, but because of the distinctly Eagles-green shape of Susie’s personal story, both during and well after her marriage to Brent.
Additional Information:
- Susie Celek was an All-American swimmer and captain of the University of Cincinnati women’s crew team before graduating with a communications degree – she and Brent were both students there when they met.
- Skin Palette, the airbrush tanning salon Susie co-founded with Julie Dorenbos in 2011, was named “Best of Philadelphia” and expanded to a satellite location inside The Bellevue hotel on South Broad Street in 2012.
- Brent Celek appeared in more regular-season games in an Eagles uniform (175) than any player in franchise history who never suited up for another team – a durability record that stood when he retired.
