It's been nearly four years since Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen officially ended their marriage. However, a new book about the NFL legend has people talking about the highly publicized divorce all over again.
For a reminder, Tom and Gisele met in 2006, tied the knot in 2009, and were married for 13 years. During that time, they welcomed two children together: Benjamin and Vivian, who are now 16 and 13. Tom also has a 19-year-old son, Jack, from his previous relationship with Bridget Moynahan.
During the latter years of Tom and Gisele's marriage, there was plenty of speculation about Tom prioritizing football over family. One of the earliest indications that the marriage was on the rocks was when reports claimed that there’d been "a lot of tension" between Tom and Gisele since March 2022, when he declared his return to the NFL for a 23rd season, a mere 40 days after announcing his retirement.
Then, in August that year, it was announced that Tom would be taking time away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ preseason training camp due to "personal" matters. After taking an unprecedented 11 days off, Tom returned to training camp and alluded to challenges in his private life. He and Gisele announced their divorce two months later on Oct. 28, 2022.
Now, bestselling author and former Sports Illustrated journalist Lars Anderson has released a new book, titled Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness, which unpacks the breakdown of the marriage and suggests that Tom's 11-day break was a "final, desperate attempt to keep his family together."
According to excerpts from the new biography, obtained by People, Tom apparently told quarterback coach Clyde Christensen, "I’ve got to take care of some personal things." Christensen described Tom as "lifeless" and theorized that the seven-time Super Bowl champ "may have been experiencing a form of psychological shock." "Something had blindsided him — something very bad and something that had completely devitalized the forty-five-year-old man," the excerpt suggests.
When Tom eventually returned to camp, he was said to be "an empty shell of who he was." Anderson reported that "his spirit seemed more broken than before, as if the eleven days had not simply passed, but had instead carved deep canyons into his heart." "There was no joy. Everything was hard work, and that’s not like Tom, who had always loved the grind and preparation," the book says.
Tom appeared visibly frustrated during the first few weeks of the 2022 NFL season, and he publicly admitted that he was navigating some difficult times off the field. In Anderson's book, former Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians claims that Tom's "problems were clearly impacting his physical well-being," and that his "jarring" 20-pound weight loss prompted concerns that he "was ill."
Tom and Gisele have never confirmed the exact reason for their split, although it's clear that his career had been a source of contention between them for a while. In fact, Anderson's book claims that in 2018 — four years before their eventual divorce — Gisele wrote Tom a letter explaining that "their marriage wasn’t working for her."
"She needed more of him, more of his time, more of his attention, more of his heart," Anderson wrote. "She needed him to be present when he was at home, not responding to text messages from his constantly buzzing cell phone." The Brazilian supermodel allegedly wrote that she needed "more help with the kids and their homework," and wanted to "sleep in just a few times."
After this, Tom and Gisele apparently entered into marriage counseling to try to "talk through their issues." However, the "weight of the letter’s message" caused Tom to have "a deep, uncomfortable assessment of his character and motivations." "Brady eventually placed the heartfelt letter in a drawer, but he’d pull it out on random nights and reread every word, wanting to be reminded that he needed to tend to his marriage with the same tenacity he tended to his job," Anderson wrote. "He needed to improve his work-life balance. If he didn’t, he could lose her... The fans got the version of Brady that Gisele had wanted all along — devoted, trustworthy, hardworking — but at home, she also often dealt with a version of her husband who was distant and distracted, his mind obsessed."
Notably, in a 2018 docuseries about Tom’s career, Gisele expressed disappointment that he chose to continue playing football beyond 2016, after he had previously said he’d retire. "When I met him in 2006, he said, 'Listen, I’m just gonna play for 10 more years, I’m gonna win one Super Bowl, and I’m gonna be happy,'" Gisele recalled in the doc. "I told him last year [in 2016], ‘I think this is great, what a great win. Now you’ve won two Super Bowls, it’s the end of the 10th year.’ And I was like, 'Woohoo, let’s go! I’m ready!' But then he’s like, 'No.'"
Though she talked publicly about her frustrations regarding Tom's commitment to his career, it's worth noting here that Gisele has explicitly denied that she gave her husband an "ultimatum" about retiring. "What’s been said is one piece of a much bigger puzzle," she told Vanity Fair in March 2023, calling the "ultimatum" reports "very hurtful" and "the craziest thing I’ve ever heard." "It’s not so black and white," she added.
With that in mind, Anderson's book attempts to delve into that "bigger puzzle," alleging that Gisele's final straw in the marriage came from astrology. A source says in the book that Gisele "basically looked into the stars and told Tom, 'We’re not compatible.'"
"And just like that, she was done," the source continued, before speculating about what else may have "triggered" the final breakdown. "Was it the years of feeling like she wasn’t his top priority? That he kept playing when she’d asked him to step away? Maybe. Or was there a particular spiritual adviser telling her, 'Hey, this relationship is bad for you. Get out of it now. Even the stars are telling you that.' One thing is certain: In no way, shape or form was this a normal marital breakdown."
Flash-forward to today, and Gisele is remarried, having quietly tied the knot with her longtime jiu-jitsu instructor, Joaquim Valente, in late 2025. Since Tom and Gisele's divorce, Tom has been accused of alluding to the split via Instagram, particularly after Gisele and Joaquim welcomed a child together in February 2025. The book now suggests that Tom was "stung" by the timing of Gisele's pregnancy — which made headlines on the two-year anniversary of their divorce — and purposefully used social media to show her the "middle finger."
"Just over a month after Gisele gave birth, Brady shared a photo of himself on Instagram — his preferred form of mass (and often cryptic) communication," Anderson writes, going on to describe a photograph Tom posted of himself throwing a football. "Underneath this snapshot of perfect throwing form, Brady wrote, ‘True Love’ — the verbatim phrase Gisele had repeatedly used to describe Brady’s relationship with football. To those who knew Brady well, there was nothing ambiguous about the post. One friend described it as ‘the softest middle finger’ ever given to an ex-wife."
So, those are the major takeaways. Neither Tom nor Gisele has commented on the book. BuzzFeed has reached out to representatives for both of them for comment. Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness is available now.
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