Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen announce divorce after 13 years of marriage: "We have grown apart"
Legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen announced on social media Friday that they have finalized their divorce, ending their 13-year marriage. The divorce comes months after Brady returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after initially saying he was going to retire, and as Bündchen said the couple had "grown apart."
"We arrived at this decision amicably and with gratitude for the time we spent together," Brady said in an Instagram story on Friday. "...We arrived at this decision to end our marriage after much consideration. Doing so is, of course, painful and difficult, like it is for many people who go through the same thing every day around the world."
The 45-year-old Brady said that the couple is "blessed with beautiful and wonderful children" and that they will continue to parent them together. They share two kids together, and Brady also has a 15-year-old son from a previous relationship with actor Bridget Moynahan.
"We wish only the best for each other as we pursue whatever new chapters in our lives that are yet to be written," he said.
In her own statement, the 42-year-old Bündchen said she has "much gratitude" for the pair's time together.
"The decision to end a marriage is never easy but we have grown apart and while it is, of course, difficult to go through something like this, I feel blessed for the time we had together and only wish the best for Tom always," she wrote.
The announcement comes just weeks after Bündchen was reported to have hired divorce lawyers.
Charlotte Triggs, executive editorial director of People Digital, told CBS News at the beginning of October that hiring a divorce attorney "is never a good sign" and signaled the finality of the marriage, which she said almost came to an end in 2015.
"They were close to a separation and almost broke up back in 2015, which we reported on at the time," Triggs said, adding that Bündchen eventually mentioned the near-breakup in her memoir.
"She recalls writing him a letter basically describing what kind of husband she needs him to be for her in order to stay in a marriage,"Triggs said. "And he later spoke in an interview about how that was a wakeup call for him and he realized he needed to make some changes."
Brady, who has been playing football for more than two decades and has seven Super Bowl wins, announced on February 1 that he was going to retire and focus his "time and energy on other things that require my attention." He had spent most of his NFL career with the New England Patriots before signing with the Buccaneers in 2020.
But just a month and a half later, he changed his mind.
"I've realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands. That time will come. But it's not now," he tweeted.
Brady led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship -- his seventh -- in his first year in Tampa, but he and his team have struggled this year.
The Buccaneers are two games under .500 this season. The Bucs lost Thursday night's game, the third loss in a row for Tampa Bay and the first time in Brady's career that he's lost five of six games. That loss came the same day that he broke the record for the most sacked quarterback in NFL history – 556 times.
