After 13 years of marriage, NFL golden boy Tom Brady and former model Gisele Bündchen announced their divorce, as the runway pro reportedly took issue with her husband un-retiring back in March.
The both the model and the quarterback promised to remain friends so they can successfully co-parent their kids.
“We are blessed with beautiful and wonderful children who will continue to be the center of our world in every way,” Brady wrote in a statement on Instagram. “We will continue to work together as parents to always ensure they receive the love and attention they deserve.”
The former couple’s dedication to their children — Jack, Benjamin and Vivian Lake — is not surprising, as they have always put them first.
Get to know the close-knit brood below.
Jack
Tom Brady’s firstborn son John “Jack” Edward Thomas Moynahan — whom he shares with ex, actress Bridget Moynahan — was born Aug. 22, 2007, in Santa Monica, Calif.
Bridget opened up to People in 2019 about co-parenting with the football great, saying both Bündchen and her own husband, Andrew Frankel, made it easy for the pair of exes to amicably raise their son.
“Tom and I made a decision to raise a child together and we both found partners that not only supported us in raising that child but also loved our child as if he was their own,” Moynahan said at the time. “I don’t think you can ask for more than that. My son is surrounded by love and grandparents that go on forever, and it’s all good.”
Bündchen has also called her stepson her “bonus child.”
At 15, Jack has already taken after his father, as he started as the Buccaneers’ ball boy in August 2021. Brady recalled encouraging his son’s interest in the sport while watching his alma mater, The University of Michigan, beat rival Ohio State last year.
“I had a little future Wolverine, my son Jack, sitting on the bed with me as I was jumping around and we were wrestling,” he recalled on his podcast in 2021. “I said, ‘That’s where you’re gonna be! You’re gonna be in the Big House someday. You’re gonna be the starting quarterback for Michigan.'”
Benjamin
Brady’s first child with Bündchen, Benjamin, was born on Dec. 8 2009, 10 months after the couple said “I Do” in February of the same year.
The runway pro’s decision to give birth at home initially unsettled the athlete.
“It was a home birth and it was funny because he didn’t want me to have a home birth,” she told People last year. “He was like, ‘Absolutely not,’ and I was like, ‘Excuse me, you don’t get to choose that, it’s my body.'”
However, he eventually came around to the idea.
“Me being there with G at his birth in our home, it lives in my mind. I think we brought this boy into the world in the most precious way,” he said at the time.
While eldest son Jack has a penchant for the pigskin like his father, Benjamin isn’t a big sports fan, which the superstar initially found difficult to accept. Over time, however, he realized how important it was to share his son’s interests without imposing his own onto the pre-teen.
“The reality is that Benny just likes different things,” he told Men’s Health (via Today) in 2019. “And it’s great because now I just have to go do what he wants to do. When we do that, we have the best time. He’s like, ‘OMG, Dad, you’re so funny.’ He loves joking, and I joke back.”
Vivian Lake
The couple’s youngest child and only daughter, Vivian Lake, was born Dec. 5, 2012, in Boston, with Brady telling ESPN of his first little girl, “I grew up in a house with three sisters. I think it’s great for my boys to have a girl in the house, just to understand at least a little bit about what makes a woman tick — not that I can certainly figure that out because I can’t. She’s a beautiful little girl.”
In 2016, the Super Bowl champ confessed to his daughter having him wrapped around her finger, telling Entertainment Tonight, “It’s the worst — well, it’s not the worst for me, I think it’s the worst for my wife who’s trying to instill some discipline in her and I just give her whatever she wants. But isn’t that what men are supposed to do for daughters?”
In addition to cheering on her dad from the sidelines, Vivian reported has taken up a few of her mother’s hobbies as well, including yoga and meditation.
