Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady in May 2018. Photo / Getty Images
Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady in May 2018. Photo / Getty Images
It got off to one helluva rocky start and has seen its challenges since, but NFL superstar Tom Brady's romance with Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is becoming as successful as his sporting career.
The world-famous quarterback, who will attempt to win his seventh Super Bowl in today's blockbuster against the Kansas City Chiefs, was dating another woman when he first locked eyes with Bundchen and flashed his million-dollar smile.
"I knew right way — the first time I saw him," Bundchen told Vanity Fair in 2009. "We met through a friend. The moment I saw him, he smiled and I was like, 'That is the most beautiful, charismatic smile I've ever seen!'"
Brady was hooked too and broke up with then-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan to clear the way for a first date during the holidays. Fair to say, he nailed it with a woman who had previously dated film star Leonardo DiCaprio.
Gisele Bundchen, second from right, before today's NFL Super Bowl 55 in Tampa, Florida. Photo / AP
"We sat and talked for three hours," Bundchen said. "I had to go home for Christmas, but I didn't want to leave. You know that feeling of, like, you can't get enough? From the first day we met, we've never spent one day without speaking to each other."
But the relationship was almost over before it started.
One month after the pair officially started dating in January 2007, Brady discovered he was going to be a father — but to his ex's child.
Bundchen thought of ending things immediately when Moynahan, a former model, announced she was three months pregnant.
"It was a challenging thing because here I am, you know, thinking, I'm dating this guy, we met, and we started dating and everything is great and then this happens," Bundchen told CBS.
"So, then I felt like I didn't know what to do. It was kind of one of those moments of like, 'Do I just run away?'"
But Brady convinced her to stay and, after navigating the arrival of his son, John, in August 2007, and a heartbreaking Super Bowl defeat to the NY Giants in February 2008, life began to settle.
Brady proposed in early 2009, tricking Bundchen into thinking her house was flooding so she'd rush home to find him waiting on bended knee.
"When I got there, the whole apartment had candles and rose petals everywhere, and then he went down on his knees to propose, and I'm like, 'get up!' because he just had surgery and had three staph infections," Bündchen said in a 2018 video.
"And I was like 'What are you doing?' He's like, 'I gotta go on my knees,' and I'm like, 'No, no, no! Get up, please!'"
They were married that year in a private ceremony in California before inviting family and friends to a second celebration in Costa Rica.
Capping a bumper 2009, the couple's first child, Benjamin, arrived in December. Delivered in the bathtub of their penthouse apartment in Boston, Ben was joined three years later by a younger sister, Vivian.
Bundchen initially struggled with the transition to motherhood.
"When I became a mom, I kind of lost myself. It was like a part of me died," she told People magazine in 2018. "I'd been this very independent person. It was all about me. But now I had this little being, and I suddenly felt l couldn't do other things and that was very hard for me.
"All I ever wanted was to be a mom, but when you're actually experiencing that, it's a shock," she added. " … I thought what a terrible mother I was for leaving my child even for like a day."
There were also testing times for the marriage. Rumours of trouble swirled in 2015 and again in 2020.
Despite being worth twice as much as her husband — Bundchen has a net worth near US$400 million ($555m) while Brady sits around US$200m — the 180cm beauty felt she was carrying too much of the load at home.
"There was a couple years ago, she didn't feel I was doing my part for the family," Brady has said.
"She felt like I would play football all season and she would take care of the house and then all the sudden when the season would end, that I'd be like, 'Great, let me get into all my other business activities. Let me get into my football training'.
"She wasn't satisfied with our marriage, and I needed to make a change in that … Her point was, 'Of course this works for you … but it doesn't work for me'. I had to check myself. Because she was like, 'I have my goals and dreams too'."
Brady said they continued to work at making each other happy and the success of their now 12-year marriage is down to what he calls "CCC — clear, current communication".
"Clear, like, 'This is exactly how I'm feeling.' And current, not like, 'This happened six months ago,'" he said, according to the Boston Globe. "And you communicate about it. I think that's helped us a lot."
Brady, 43, and Bundchen, 40, appear to have hit a new stride since moving to Florida after he changed teams and continue to write loving messages to each other on social media.
"I didn't realise how much I could love you and the family we created together," Brady writes in one post. "My heart is so full and I am so blessed!
"I know our journey has not been easy, but the challenges we have overcome have made our bond stronger and our love grow deeper."
