2 weeks Ago
The runway of Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady ’s marriage was 13 years long. But in October 2022, after weeks of breakup rumors, the supermodel and the quarterback announced their divorce. While Bündchen noted in her statement they’d simply “grown apart,” she stressed the decision wasn’t easy and that she was grieving the loss of what once was .
It’s “the death of my dream,” she explained in a Vanity Fair cover story published in March 2023. “It’s tough because you imagine your life was going to be a certain way, and you did everything you could, you know? I believed in fairy tales when I was a kid. I think it’s beautiful to believe in that.
I mean, I’m so grateful I did.” Though the couple's love story didn't include a happily-ever-after with each other—she shot down speculation their marriage ended because he returned to the NFL just over a month after retiring , before then re -retiring the following year—Bündchen was ready to begin a new chapter. “He’s the father of my kids,” the fashion icon—who shares son Benjamin , 14, and daughter Vivian , 11, with the Super Bowl champion and has developed a close bond with her “bonus child” Jack from Brady’s previous relationship with Bridget Moynahan —told CBS Sunday Morning last November.
“So, I always wish him the best. I’m so grateful that he gave me wonderful children. And I think when a door shuts, other doors open.
” So far she's been strutting right through them, adding the title of cookbook author to her already stacked résumé as one of the highest paid models. And then there's the little piece of news that dropped on Oct. 28— exactly two years after Bündchen and Brady confirmed they’d ended their union, with multiple outlets reporting she’s expecting a baby with boyfriend Joaquim Valente .
Though Bündchen has yet to comment on the pregnancy reports , it's hardly a surprising move considering the 44-year-old has stayed rather tight-lipped on her relationship with the jiu-jitsu instructor. "This is the first time I am seeing someone that was a friend of mine first," she told The New York Times in March 2023 without naming names. "It's very different.
It is very honest, and it's very transparent." As for when that friendship turned romantic, a source close to the situation confirmed to E! News in February that Bündchen and Valente—who along with his brothers Pedro and Gui taught her and her kids jiu-jitsu—were dating. However, the pair had sparked romance rumors months before.
“I think, at this point, unfortunately, because I’m divorced, I’m sure that they’re going to try to attach me to anything,” Bündchen told Vanity Fair in her March 2023 profile. “I’m so grateful to know all of them, because not only have they helped me and helped my kids, but they have become great friends, and Joaquim especially. He’s our teacher and, most importantly, he’s a person that I admire and that I trust.
It’s so good to have that kind of energy, to have my kids around that type of energy.” However, she wasn’t a fan of being surrounded by rumors she’d cheated on Brady with Valente before their divorce, insisting to The New York Times , “That is a lie.” “This is something that happens to a lot of women who get blamed when they have the courage to leave an unhealthy relationship and are labeled as being unfaithful,” Bündchen continued.
“They have to deal with their communities. They have to deal with their family. Of course for me, it just happens to be a little bit amplified.
” As she put it, “No one really knows what happens between two people, only the two people in the relationship.” And for now, it looks like Bündchen is keeping details of her romance with Valente between just the two of them—aside from the rare snap of him she’s posted on Instagram . However, she’s much more open about her life as a mom, including how she talks to her kids about the tabloids and how her daughter Vivian has been there for her amid public scrutiny.
“She’s like, ‘Mommy, you always told me not to listen to the gossip and the lies,’” Bündchen recalled to The New York Times . “It’s funny because the things you teach your kids, they come back and teach you.” Still, she tries to not pay too much attention to online critics.
In fact, Bündchen previously told E! News she limits her social media scrolling to “maybe an hour a week” and tries to put her phone down by 9 p.m. "I have a very tight schedule, I have a lot of things in my day," she noted in December.
"Being with my kids is so much more important." Just take one look at Bündchen’s Instagram, and you’ll see it filled with photos of her and her kids enjoying days at the beach, horseback riding and practicing yoga. And yes, like many kids, they have chores.
“’The way you make your room, the way you organize and make your bed is the way you’re going to do your life,’” she recalled to Harper’s Bazaar about what she told her kids. “’If you’re not learning here and now, then when and with who?’ Sometimes, I get pushback , especially because now they’re in two different homes and there are two different ways. But I feel like I owe it to my kids, because of what my mom taught me.
” But make no mistake, when it comes to co-parenting , Bündchen and Brady have both made it clear they’re on the same team. "I'm trying to raise them—we all are, myself and their mom—in a very loving way toward one another," the athlete told E! News in June 2023, "to be very kind, to be empathetic and to have great perspective. Our kids are growing up in different ways than we grew up but also we want to raise them with the right values.
" And as their kids navigate their teenage years, Bündchen can’t believe how quickly time has flown. “I was there to take my kids to school every day and make them breakfast every morning and just be with them. I mean, what a gift,” she told CBS Sunday Morning .
“They grow up so fast, and it’s like that [snaps fingers]. You wake up and you’re like, ‘What happened?’” As Bündchen continues on her journey with her family, work, and relationship with Valente, she's doing it all on her own terms. “I can’t really worry about what other people say about me because what they say about me is none of my business,” she told Harper’s Bazaar about dealing with public scrutiny.
“It’s really their business that they’re trying to project onto me. If I’m going to be affected by that, I’m never going to live my truth.”.
