TAMPA, Fla. — About five months after her divorce from seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen opened up about the former couple's split.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Bündchen cleared the air and said Brady's decision to come out of retirement and rejoin the NFL was not the reason for their divorce.
"[It was] the craziest thing I've ever heard,“ she told Vanity Fair. "That takes years to happen. What's been said is one piece of a much bigger puzzle."
For Bündchen, their marriage was not always straightforward as others may have thought.
"Sometimes you grow together; sometimes you grow apart,” Bündchen told the publication. “It's not so black and white. When I was 26 years old and he was 29 years old, we met, we wanted a family, we wanted things together. As time goes by, we realize that we just wanted different things, and now we have a choice to make.
"That doesn’t mean you don’t love the person. It just means that in order for you to be authentic and truly live the life that you want to live, you have to have somebody who can meet you in the middle, right? It’s a dance. It’s a balance.”
Brady and Bündchen finalized their divorce on Oct. 28, 2022, when the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback confirmed on social media.
The future Hall of Famer said he and Bündchen made the decision to divorce "after much consideration."
The 42-year-old model compared the process of the divorce to "a death and a rebirth," while she continues to mourn "the death of my dream."
“It’s tough because you imagine your life was going to be a certain way, and you did everything you could,” she said to Vanity Fair. “I believed in fairy tales when I was a kid. I think it’s beautiful to believe in that. I’m so grateful I did.”
Moving forward, Bündchen said she will continue to support Brady's future career decisions, who announced his second retirement from the league on Feb. 1.
“I have always cheered for him, and I would continue forever," she said. "If there’s one person I want to be the happiest in the world, it’s him, believe me.
“I want him to achieve and to conquer. I want all his dreams to come true. That’s what I want from the bottom of my heart.”
Brady and Bündchen wed in 2009 and have two children together. Brady also has a 15-year-old son from a previous relationship with actress Bridget Moynahan. The two said they will continue to prioritize their children through co-parenting.
Brady has previously let out some of his frustrations with being away from the people he loves while focusing on his profession.
"I haven't had a Christmas in 23 years and I haven't had a Thanksgiving in 23 years," Brady said on the Let's Go!" podcast released on Sept. 12, 2022. "I haven't celebrated birthdays with people that I care about that are, you know, born from August to late January."
10 Tampa Bay's Andrea Chu contributed to this report.