The ultimate power couple appears headed for Splitsville.
NFL legend Tom Brady and supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen have reportedly hired divorce lawyers, capping months of speculation their marriage was on the rocks. The tipping point appears to have been a very recent, very nasty squabble.
“I never actually thought this argument would be the end of them, but it looks like it is,” a source told the New York Post’s Page Six. “I don’t think there will be any coming back now. They both have lawyers and are looking at what a split will entail, who gets what and what the finances will be.”
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl champ hinted at problems on the homefront when he left training camp in August. But he returned to lead the team to a 2-2 record and a first-place perch in the NFC South Division.
The ageless Brady, still one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks at an unheard of 45, announced he was retiring earlier this year but then changed his mind to return for another season. Bündchen made it clear she wanted him to hang up his cleats, but she seemed to understand he was happier on the gridiron, as The Daily Wire reported.
“Obviously, I have my concerns—this is a very violent sport, and I have my children and I would like him to be more present,” Bundchen said. “I have definitely had those conversations with him over and over again. But ultimately, I feel that everybody has to make a decision that works for [them]. He needs to follow his joy, too.”
For his part, Brady, who vanished from training camp for 11 days in August, said last month on his “Let’s Go” podcast that he was starting to get nostalgic as his 23-year career winds down.
“As you get older, life changes quite a bit,” he told sportscaster Jim Gray. “There’s different responsibilities that take form in your life. There’s different perspectives you gain.
“I’m just really feeling intensely my emotions,” he continued. “And I feel like I always have that, but I think when you get close to the end – and I don’t know exactly where I’m at with that, but there’s no decision to be made, it’s not like I have 10 years left, I definitely don’t have that.”
Brady and Bündchen married in 2009 and they have a son and a daughter. Brady has another son with actress Bridget Moynahan, who he dated before Bündchen.
A divorce would not leave either in the poorhouse. The future Hall of Famer, whose salary is $26.5 million per year, has earned over $300 million during his career, plus endorsements from brands like Tag Heuer and Under Armour. Bündchen, 42, who was among the world’s highest-paid runway walkers when she married Brady, is reportedly worth even more than her husband.
The pair owns homes around the country, including a $17 million mansion on Indian Creek Island in Miami; a $3.6 million condo in New York’s Tony Tribeca neighborhood; a $5.7 million spread in Montana; and a vacation home on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.