Tom Brady ‘Didn’t Want Kids to Have Divorced Parents,’ Source Says After He and Gisele Divorced

Rumors that Brady and Bündchen were speaking to divorce attorneys were confirmed in early October. Sources close to the couple told an American news outlet that Bündchen had been working with a divorce attorney for “weeks” after reports confirmed the couple were living in separate houses in Florida.

The powerhouse couple has officially separated. After 13 years of marriage Tom Brady, 45, and Gisele Bündchen, 42, finalized their divorce on Friday.

Bündchen is a Brazilian fashion model and businesswoman and has been one of the highest paid models in the world since 2001. Brady is an American football quarterback for the National Football League (NFL) who retired from the sport in his 22nd season in 2021, only to return to the field a few months later.

A source close to Brady said the NFL player “didn’t want [their] kids to have divorced parents.”

“This was not Tom’s idea,” a source said about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback. “This was never Tom’s idea.”

The couple has two children, Benjamin Reing, 12, and Vivian Lake, 9. Brady has another son, John Edward Thomas Moynahan, 15, whom he shares with his ex-wife actress and supermodel Bridget Moynahan, 51. According to sources, they will be sharing joint custody of their children.

"My priority has always been and will continue to be our children whom I love with all my heart," Bündchen wrote in a social media post that addressed their divorce. "We will continue co-parenting to give them the love, care and attention they greatly deserve."

The couple, who each has a net worth in the hundreds of millions, finalized their divorce using “an ironclad prenup”, sources said, which allowed for the couple to divide their assets and divorce more quickly.

“There was an ironclad prenup set down before they married in 2009. They both have their own separate business entities, so the separation of their wealth wasn’t that complicated in the end. The only other major factor was dividing up their massive property portfolio,” a source said.

Their “massive property portfolio” includes a $17 million mansion which the couple bought in 2020 before demolishing it. It is currently under construction and is located on Indian Creek Island in Miami and will be retained by Brady following the couple's divorce.

Bündchen, who was reported to have a higher net worth than her husband before their divorce, bought her own home in Miami Beach: a three bedroom, three bathroom house worth $1.25 million. Bündchen reportedly bought the pad about two weeks before Brady decided to return to the NFL. The supermodel will also keep their home on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica for vacationing with her kids. The couple also shared properties in the Bahamas, Montana, as well as New York City.

The reason for the couple’s divorce is not entirely known. Interviews hint that Bündchen wanted Brady to step back from his football career and help raise their children after she herself had put her career on hold to support her husband and children.

“I deliberately took a step back from modeling in 2015, as I wanted to focus more on my family and personal projects,” Bündchen wrote in her memoir, “Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life.” The supermodel continued to work, but focused more on photo shoots as opposed to walking the runway and even relocated to Boston to support her husband’s football career while he played for the New England Patriots.

“I’ve done my part, which is [to] be there for [Tom],” Bündchen told an American magazine in September. “I moved to Boston, and I focused on creating a cocoon and a loving environment for my children to grow up in and to be there supporting him and his dreams. Seeing my children succeed and become the beautiful little humans that they are, seeing him succeed, and being fulfilled in his career – it makes me happy. At this point in my life, I feel like I’ve done a good job on that.”

“I have a huge list of things that I have to do, that I want to do,” she said. “At 42, I feel more connected to my purpose.”

Brady had also admitted that Bundchen had been “holding down” the couple’s home life for “a long time”, and said that his career had taken him away from holidays as well as birthdays.

“I think my wife has, you know, held down the house for a long time now,” Brady said on his podcast last year. “And I think there’s things that she wants to accomplish. You know, she hasn’t worked as much in the last 10, 12 years, just raising our family and kind of committing to being in a life in Boston and then moving to Florida. But that’s an issue, and it’s a very difficult issue to reconcile without just saying, ‘Hey, it’s time to retire.’ And I think there’s, you know, we’re coming to the end here too, so I don’t want to miss any of the kids’ stuff.”

“I haven’t had a Christmas in 23 years and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving in 23 years,” he said on an episode of his podcast, referring to his career as an NFL star. “I haven’t celebrated birthdays with people that I care about that are born from August to late January. And I’m not able to be at funerals and I’m not able to be at weddings.” Last year, Brady said he believes he’s capable of playing until he’s 50.