The Untold Truth Of Tom Brady And Gisele Bundchen's Relationship
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen may be regarded by fans as one of the most successful and enviably beautiful celebrity couples around, but nobody's perfect. In an interview with Howard Stern on Sirius XM Radio on April 8, 2020, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback admitted that he and Bündchen suffered a strain in their marriage about two years ago. At the time, the Brazilian-born model didn't think her husband was contributing enough to the family.
"A couple of years ago...she didn't feel like I was doing my part for the family and she felt like I would play football all season and she would take care of the house," Brady said during the SiriusXM talk (via E! News).
He continued, "And all of a sudden, when that season ended, I'd be like, 'Great, let me get into all my other business activities, let me get in to my football training,' and she's sitting there going, 'Well, when are you gonna do things for the house? When are you gonna take the kids to school and do that?'"
While Bündchen didn't give Brady an ultimatum, per say, he knew that he needed to get his head in the game.
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's ups and downs
When things went south between Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen, the NFL star — who announced in March 2020 that he was leaving the New England Patriots after 20 years — realized he need to change his ways and figure out how to be more present in his marriage and in his children's lives. Brady told Howard Stern that seeing his wife so unhappy opened his eyes. "...[T]hat was a big part of our marriage, that I had to like, check myself because she's like, 'I have goals and dreams too.'" he said (via E! News).
Among other things, Brady began skipping some OTA practices, which happen during the offseason, with the Patriots and pulling out of other projects, but having to do this made him feel "resentful" towards Bündchen, per People. The pair eventually sought help from a marriage counselor.
"She wasn't satisfied with our marriage," Brady said of his wife. "So I needed to make a change in that."
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen saved their marriage
Things improved for Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen when the model wrote a loving letter to her husband. "She actually wrote me a letter, and it was a very thought out letter that she wrote to me and I still have it and I keep it in a drawer and I read it," the football star said in his interview with Howard Stern, per People.
He added,"It's a very heartfelt letter for her to say this is where I'm at in our marriage, and it's a good reminder for me that things are going to change and evolve over time. What happened and what worked for us 10 years ago won't work for us forever because we are growing in different ways."
Now that they've gotten past the bump in the road, Brady said he's much more aware of what it takes to keep a marriage strong. "The point of a relationship is that it has to work for both [partners]. You better work on both because if you don't then it's not sustainable," he said.
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's family life
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen first met in December 2006 when they were introduced by a mutual friend, per Today. In March 2009, the former Victoria's Secret model told Vanity Fair that it was love at first sight, but, for Brady, it was a bit more complicated than that.
At the time, the NFL player was dating actress Bridget Moynahan. Apparently, his connection to Bündchen was so strong that he quickly broke things off with Moynahan — but it didn't end there. In February 2007, when Brady and Bündchen had already been dating for a couple months, news broke that Moynahan was expecting Brady's baby, according to People.
Bündchen thought about running away, she told CBS This Morning in 2017 (via E! News), but her love for Brady was strong enough that she stayed. The two got engaged in January 2009 and said "I do" in an "intimate" ceremony just one month later.
At the time of this writing, Brady and Bündchen have two kids together: a son named Benjamin and a daughter named Vivian Lake. Brady is also dad to son John Edward Thomas, who he shares with Moynahan.