Tom Brady is widely considered to be the greatest NFL player of all time. He has been one of the most successful professional athletes of all time. For the majority of his NFL career, Tom Brady was married to Brazilian Supermodel Gisele Bundchen. However, near the end of Tom Brady’s NFL career, the relationship fell apart. Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen are officially divorced and in this post, we will take a look at their journey as a couple.

Tom Brady And Gisele Bundchen: A Sad Ending

How did Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen meet?

The gorgeous couple met in December 2006 on a blind date organized by mutual friends. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal magazine in September 2021, regarding the end of his career, Brady was asked “What was the phone call that changed your life?”. “I think the phone call that changed my life was from my friend Ed, who told me ‘I know this girl and I think you should call her’, I ended up calling her and she ended up being the love of my life”, replied the NFL legend. “I knew right away — the first time I saw him,” Gisele confessed to Vanity Fair magazine in 2009. “The moment I saw him, he smiled and I was like, it’s the most beautiful, charismatic smile I’ve ever seen. We sat and talked for three hours. I had to go home for Christmas, but I didn’t want to leave. You know that feeling of, you can’t get enough? From the first day we met, we never went a day without talking to each other.”

Did Gisele Bundchen accuse Tom Brady of not focusing on his family?

In 2020, Brady confessed on The Howard Stern Show that two years earlier his marriage had gone through a crisis. Gisele “wasn’t satisfied” with the relationship, as her husband “wasn’t doing her role in the family”. According to the athlete, his wife felt that he dedicated himself to football during the sports season and, when it ended, he dedicated himself to his other businesses, leaving his home and family behind. Brady said the situation was a wake-up call, marking “a big transition” in his life and he began to dedicate himself much more to his family. He confessed that he felt “resentful” with his wife’s criticism and that the couple sought counseling. However, the turning point was a letter that Gisele wrote to him where she wrote down what she felt about their marriage.

In 2020, after 20 years with the New England Patriots team, he moved to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the family left Boston for Florida. The following year he won the Super Bowl with his new team.

Did Tom Brady retire twice?

In February 2022, Tom Brady announced the end of his American football career. “My wife is my biggest supporter. It hurts her to see me get hit on the field. She deserves what she needs from me as a husband and my children deserve what they need from me as a father,” Brady said on the “Let’s Go!” podcast, cited by People magazine. Gisele publicly showed her support through a message on Twitter, the caption of which simply said: “What a trip my love!”.

His CV had 22 seasons and seven Super Bowl victories, but in the end, Tom Brady wanted to continue playing and the following month he un-retired. The woman publicly supported him through social media. During the months that followed, the couple shared information through interviews, which allowed them to understand or speculate about the current moment in the couple’s lives.

Tom Brady finally retired for good at the end of the 2022-23 NFL season.

Did Gisele Bundchen want Tom Brady to stop playing football?

For some time, the press has been feeding the idea that Gisele wants her husband to withdraw from the competition and the situation was addressed in an interview she gave to Elle magazine published in the September 2022 edition. The interviewer told the model that she considers “the characterization sexist” and she agreed. “I think this is the system we have been living under. This is what society has accepted and what society has not accepted.”

Speaking more specifically about her husband’s work: “Obviously, I have my concerns — this is a violent sport and I have my children and I would like him to be more present”, she confessed. “I definitely had those conversations with him several times. But ultimately, I feel like everyone has to make a decision that works for them. He needs to follow his happiness, too”, says the model about the fact that her husband announced his retirement and then his return to the competition in the space of a few weeks, just a few months before.

The interview focused on the new phase of life that the supermodel was living, with several plans in hand. “I have a long list of things that I have to do, that I want to do. At 42 I feel more connected with my goal.” However, in the long interview, Gisele also talked about her family, especially her husband, and made her role clear. “I did my part, which is to be there for Tom. I moved to Boston and focused on creating a cocoon and loving environment for my children to grow up in and being there to support him and his dreams. Seeing my children succeed and become the beautiful little humans that they are, seeing him be successful and fulfilled with his career – that makes me happy. At this point in my life, I feel like I’ve done a good job in that area.” And she concludes: “I feel very fulfilled in this area, as a mother and as a wife. And now it will be my turn.”

What did Tom Brady say about the sacrifices made during his NFL career?

On September 13, 2022, on the podcast “Let’s Go!”, in which Brady was a part of the panel, the rumors about his withdrawal that continue to circulate were addressed. “Why would I consider stopping just because others think I should?” asked one of the program’s colleagues. The quarterback responded that “the only thing that changes over time is that he has different priorities as he gets older.” “I haven’t had a Christmas in 23 years and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving in 23 years. I don’t celebrate birthdays with people I care about who were born between August and the end of January. And I can’t go to funerals or weddings”, confessed the American football star about the sacrifices that being at the highest level entails. “I think there comes a point in your life where you say, ‘You know? I had my bill and that’s enough and it’s time to go, to move on to other parts of life.”

How did Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady get divorced?

In September, Tom and Gisele were seen with their children separately and in different parts of the country, said People magazine. Before this, the player had been away from training for 11 days for “personal” reasons. When asked at a press conference what caused his absence, Brady replied: “It’s all personal, you know everyone has different situations they have to deal with. We all have unique challenges in our lives”, quotes the New York Times.

When the National Football League (NFL) kicked off on September 11, Gisele Bundchen made an encouraging post on Twitter (“Let’s go Tom Brady! Let’s go, Bucs!”), but she wasn’t present at the stadium, just as she wasn’t when her husband’s team played at home for the first time in the season, later in September.

At the beginning of October, it became known that Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady had hired divorce lawyers. The news came after a few weeks in which the two had been living separately, according to CNN, to which a source close to the couple said they were “exploring their options” when it comes to marriage.

Until the divorce was finalized, the case of uncertainty surrounding the future of the couple Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady kept getting new chapters every day. “There is no retirement in my future”, said Brady in a video published by his team on Instagram, during a press conference. “I’m here to announce that, finally, you pushed me to the limit”, began the athlete. “I love sport, I love my colleagues and I want to do a good job for this team, as I always have.”