Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen Divorce After 13 Years CBC sport

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen have finalized their divorce, they announced on Friday, ending the 13-year marriage between two superstars who have each reached the pinnacle of fashion and football.

Brady and Bundchen released statements on Instagram late Friday morning, each saying they made the decision “amicably.”

“The decision to end a marriage is never easy, but we’ve grown apart and while it’s obviously difficult to pull through something like that, I feel blessed for the time we’ve had together and I always wish Tom nothing but that Best.” Bundchen wrote.

Both said their priorities are their children and asked for privacy.

The divorce comes in the midst of Brady’s 23rd NFL season and his first losing streak in three games in 20 years, just months after the seven-time Super Bowl champion ended his short-lived retirement.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback — who has long expressed a desire to spend more time with Bundchen and his three children — announced his departure from the game in February, only to change his mind 40 days later.

“What do you still have to prove?” Bundchen told her husband on the side after his last, record-breaking Super Bowl victory, as Brady himself said shortly after the win.

Although Brady originally said his retirement was a chance to focus his “time and energy on other things that need my attention,” part of his motivation for coming back was what he described as “unfinished business” with the Buccaneers. The team failed to reach the Super Bowl to repeat the title last season.

Bundchen told CBS This Morning in 2017 that she was concerned for her husband after he suffered a concussion the previous year. Brady’s team at the time, the New England Patriots, and her agent declined to respond to her comments at the time, and an NFL spokesman said there was no record of him suffering a head injury. Brady later said he preferred to keep his medical history a secret.

“I mean, we don’t talk about it,” Bundchen said during the interview. “But he has concussions. I don’t really think it’s healthy for anyone to go through that.”

“It’s a very violent sport”

She recently claimed that the characterization in reports that she was desperate for her husband to retire had sexist undertones.

“Of course I have my doubts. It’s a very violent sport and I have my kids and I want it to be more present,” the supermodel told Elle magazine in September. “I definitely kept having those conversations with him. But ultimately I think everyone has to make a decision that works [them]. He must also follow his joy.”

Bundchen and Brady were introduced by a mutual friend and married – twice – just over two years later. They said their first vows at a Catholic church in Santa Monica, California, in front of family and close friends in early 2009, followed by an equally small second wedding at their home in Costa Rica nearly two months later.

Discovered by a model scout in Brazil at the age of 13, Bundchen secured her place as one of the industry’s highest-paid models in the 2000s and became a tabloid staple due to her relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio. Not only has she walked the catwalks of top designers, appeared in campaigns for high street and high fashion brands, she has signed on as a Victoria’s Secret Angel and has had small roles in films including The Devil Wears Prada.

She retired from modeling in 2015, giving up catwalk work and limiting herself to a few ad campaigns and magazine covers a year. She made a big exception, wearing a glittery dress and a big smile as she crossed a 120-meter runway at the Rio Olympics in 2016 while her Brazilian Daniel Jobim performed The Girl from Ipanema.

Since stepping back from modeling commitments, she’s devoted herself to environmental activism, specifically to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest, and to business ventures like eco-friendly skincare and a lingerie line. She’s also been vocal about mental health, revealing debilitating panic attacks that she said made her contemplate suicide, and criticizing unrealistic ideals of beauty.

“I’ve done my part”

Above all, Bundchen told Elle, her family is her top priority.

“I’ve done my part, that 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 support him and his dreams,” she said. “Seeing my kids thrive and becoming the beautiful little people they are, seeing him succeed and be fulfilled in his career makes me happy. At this point in my life, I feel like I’ve done a good job at it.”

After years in Boston — where Brady played for the Patriots — and moving back to Tampa with him in 2020, she said she has plans of her own: “I have a huge list of things that I need to do, that I want to do. At 42, I feel more connected to my purpose.”

Brady turned 45 in August when he left the Buccaneers for 11 days for undisclosed personal reasons. The team supported the holiday, calling it a pre-planned break agreed before training camp began in July.

A three-time NFL MVP and the league’s all-time leader in yards passing and touchdowns, Brady has signed a 10-year deal reportedly worth $375 million to become the lead football analyst for Fox Sports once he takes off his shoes nail hangs. When that will be is still uncertain – while Brady had expressed an interest in extending his playing career beyond his mid-40s if he stayed healthy, in 2017 his now-ex-wife had another idea.

“That kind of aggression all the time, it can’t be healthy for you,” she said during the CBS interview. “I plan on him being healthy and doing a lot of fun things by the time we’re about 100 I hope.”