It’s official — Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen are over.
After months of building speculation, the former couple announced in separate Instagram statements on Friday that, after nearly 14 years of marriage, their divorce has been finalized.
“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 wish the best for Tom always,” Gisele wrote on her story.
Similarly, Tom noted in his statement the “painful and difficult” choice to end their marriage, adding that they “arrived at the decision amicably” and “with gratitude” for the years they spent together.
Both Gisele and Tom expressed their commitment to co-parenting their children, 12-year-old Benjamin and 9-year-old Vivian, who they said “will continue to be the center of [their] world in every way.”
Their respective announcements came shortly after TMZ reported that their divorce was set to be filed imminently. The outlet also claimed that attorneys had been working on a settlement since early September.
Of course, if you’ve been keeping up to date with Tom and Gisele, the divorce will come as little surprise, given that there have been a ton of signs in recent months to suggest that they’d not been seeing eye-to-eye.
For a bit of context, it was widely speculated that there’d been “a lot of tension” between Tom and Gisele since March when he declared his return to the NFL for a 23rd season — a mere 40 days after announcing his retirement.
In light of the fact that Gisele has spent years talking candidly about her hopes that Tom might retire from football in pursuit of a more “present” role in their family, his U-turn sparked a lot of discussions about the state of their marriage — something she appeared to comment on in an interview with British Vogue just two months later.
Addressing her husband’s undying dedication to his career in May, Gisele said it “takes work to be really in sync with someone, especially after you have kids.”
“I don’t think relationships just happen; it’s never the fairy tale people want to believe it is,” she added. “His focus is on his career, mine is mostly on the kids. And I’m very grateful that he lets me take the reins when it comes to our family. He trusts my decisions.”
Despite her quotes raising eyebrows among fans, Gisele and Tom put on a united front over the course of the summer months, publicly celebrating their respective birthdays together in July and August.
However, just days after Gisele had praised her “focused” and “disciplined” husband in celebration of his 45th birthday on Aug. 3, it was announced that he would be taking some time away from the Buccaneers’ preseason training camp on account of “personal” matters.
During a press conference on Aug. 11, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles explained that the quarterback had been granted time off to “deal with some personal things,” resulting in an unprecedented 11 days off.
Upon his return on Aug. 22, Tom alluded to challenges in his private life, telling reporters: “I'm 45 years old, man. There's a lot of shit going on, so you just have to try and figure out life the best you can.”
Whether or not Tom’s time off was related to their marriage remains uncertain, however, NFL insider Ian Rapoport wrote that he spent the majority of his break at a private resort in the Bahamas, “making good on a mid-retirement promise” to Gisele that he would go on a family vacation in August for the first time in two decades.
“During his time off, the Bucs left him alone to be with his family, fully respectful,” Rapoport wrote. “It was his personal situation, and they allowed him to live.”
And while this was never confirmed directly, it was ultimately corroborated by Elle, which noted in Gisele’s cover story the following month that the interview had been conducted virtually, as she was vacationing with her family in the Bahamas at the time.
Calling in from her vacation, Gisele shed more light on her “concerns” about Tom’s career, as well as her hopes for her own.
“This is a very violent sport, and I have my children and I would like him to be more present,” she said, commenting directly on his “unretirement.”
“I have definitely had those conversations with him over and over again,” she admitted, making no secret of her hopes for him to finally step back. “But ultimately, I feel that everybody has to make a decision that works for [them]. He needs to follow his joy, too.”
And while discussing her husband’s wind-down, Gisele — who formally retired from the catwalk back in 2015 — emphasized that it’s about time for her comeback.
“There are so many things I’m working on, I’ll be here the entire day talking about it,” she said, hinting at a significant shift in her priorities, both personally and professionally. “I feel very fulfilled in that way, as a mother and as a wife. And now it’s going to be my turn.”
On top of this, another huge indicator in recent months that something had been awry was Gisele’s noticeable absence from the crowd at Tom’s football games.
At the time of the season opener on Sept. 11, a source close to the team said that Gisele’s no-show felt “weird,” particularly given it was Tom’s big return to the field after his retirement debacle.
The supermodel helped to quell speculation by tweeting her support for Tom, writing: “Let’s go @TomBrady ! Let’s go Bucs !” However, she ultimately made the biggest statement by skipping Tom’s first home game on Sept. 25 — her lack of appearance made all the more intriguing by the fact that their children were in attendance without her.
Once again, her string of no-shows only helped fuel claims of a rift — as did subsequent reports that they’d been living apart for “more than a month.”
Before long, Page Six dropped the bombshell that many had been anticipating for weeks, kicking off October with the reports that Tom and Gisele had each hired divorce attorneys.
“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,” an insider said at the time.
Despite plenty of evidence to suggest that a divorce was on the horizon, the following days would bring more clues than ever before, starting with reports that construction had been halted on a 2-acre lot owned by the couple in Miami.
On Oct. 5 — just one day after reports they’d enlisted the help of attorneys — Gisele was spotted without her wedding ring for the first time. The next day, she sent the internet into yet another frenzy when she was photographed with a holistic healer, who appeared to be cleansing her car with sage.
And while the signs were pointing toward the inevitable, it was business as usual for Tom as he kept his focus on football.
That said, he did admit to be navigating some difficult times off the field, saying during an Oct. 11 episode of his SiriusXM podcast: “There’s things I’m going through in my 40s and it’s life.”
“You learn to grow up and you learn to deal with life,” he added. “And that’s what we’re all trying to do. We’re trying to do it the best way we can.”
Several days after this, Tom took a trip to NYC where he made a solo appearance at the wedding of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, mingling with the likes of Elton John and Jon Bon Jovi.
With her car freshly saged and left hand free of jewelry, Gisele noticeably did not attend the festivities. This hardly came as a surprise given that not long before this, she appeared to shade her husband by commenting on an Instagram post about relationship troubles.
“You can't be in a committed relationship with someone who is inconsistent with you,” read the quote, shared by author and podcaster Jay Shetty on Oct. 11.
The caption continued: “Love is a daily effort. Some days it may come easier than others and that's OK, but what should always stay consistent is the respect and admiration you have for your partner's values and goals.”
Evidently in agreement with the sentiment, Gisele dropped a prayer-hands emoji into the comments section — a move that felt to many like the ultimate confirmation of their split after months of guesswork.
And if that wasn’t enough, by Oct. 16 both Tom and Gisele had noticeably ditched their wedding bands, with Tom being spotted for the first time with his left hand ring-free.
By this time, the writing was on the wall, and all that was left was for the couple to confirm it themselves — which brings us right back around to last week, when their statements made waves on Instagram.
According to People, the dissolution of their marriage was filed and finalized on Friday, with documents declaring their relationship “irretrievably broken.”
Though the details of their settlement will not be publicly filed, the speed with which their divorce was finalized adds to speculation that the split had been in the works for a while, with insiders also claiming that they’d “been working on the terms this whole time.”
