Nearly a year after Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady finalized their divorce after 13 years of marriage, the Brazilian supermodel discussed the impact of the split on her family, her life in Miami, and self care in a wide-ranging interview with People magazine.
“It’s been very tough on my family. It’s been a lot — in every area of my life,” Bundchen said of all the issues she’s been dealing with over the past year. “I feel like whenever it rains, it pours. With all the different twists and turns that life takes, all we can do is the best we can given what happens in our surroundings.”
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Here are four takeaways from the interview.
Bundchen and the kids are based in Miami — in a 1,500-square-foot house
Bundchen and the former Patriots quarterback have two kids, Vivian, 10, and Ben, 13, and were living in Tampa before they separated. (Brady is also dad to older son Jack, whose mother is actress Bridget Moynahan.) Bundchen and the kids are now based in Miami, where they live in a 1,500-square-foot house — more than enough room for a piano, which she says Benny loves to play.
“I noticed that he loves music. I put a piano in the living room, so anytime he passes by, it’s there,” Bundchen told People. “And now because I’m living in this 1,500 square foot house, it’s amazing because literally, it’s right there. He literally passes all the time to it, and every time he passes, he sits and he plays.”
(We’ll note here that 1,500 square feet is a far cry from the family’s previous palatial abodes. You may recall that Brady and Bundchen reportedly sold an 18,000-square-foot Brentwood chateau to Dr. Dre back in 2014 and unloaded their 12,000-square-foot Brookline manse in 2020, months after the GOAT announced he was going to play for Tampa.)
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Vivian, meanwhile, loves horse jumping — a pricey sport that Bundchen’s friends have warned her to stop while she can.
“She’s like, ‘Mom, I’m going to be a professional horseback rider.’ That’s all she wants to do,” she said of her daughter. “When I was getting into it, people were like, ‘Gisele, get out while you can.’ I was like, ‘I don’t think I can get out. She’s obsessed.’”
... So Gisele purchased a horse farm
Vivian’s obsession with all things equine led Bundchen to buy a horse farm where she can ride in privacy.
“Now she’s already trying to get other horses,” the supermodel said. “She’s already like, ‘Mom. They told me I have to have a new horse to jump higher.’ I’m like, ‘You’re 10, calm down.’”
Bundchen says she’s done with alcohol
The 43 year old says she feels more present since giving up alcohol two years ago.
“If you want to ask of your body what I ask of my body, which is a lot, I can’t be having all these things (alcohol, caffeine) because they add up,” Bundchen said.
Cutting out that glass of wine made an immediate difference, she said.
“I became more clear. I felt a bit more foggy before. Now I’m very sharp and very present and I notice things that I didn’t notice before,” Bundchen told People. “When I’m not drinking, I’m sleeping much better. You have to be loving to yourself. You ask a lot of your body, you’ve got to do a reset. You have got to take care of this only vehicle you got, right?”
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The kids are no longer homeschooled
Bundchen and Brady homeschooled their children during the pandemic, but now the kids are enrolled at a new school and making friends, she said.
They’re also diving into sports. Vivian is on the school swim team, and Ben is playing football as No. 12 — which, of course, is his dad’s number.
The most important thing to Bundchen is that she’s raising kids with the “right values,” she said.
“It makes me proud to see how they’re all becoming their own little individual selves, but how their principles and their values are so strong,” she said. “It makes me so happy to see that, they’re flourishing into their own beings.”
Talia Lissauer can be reached at talia.lissauer@globe.com. Follow her on Instgram @_ttphotos.