Tom Brady just celebrated his first Father’s Day since his divorce from Gisele Bündchen, and it seems like he’s taking some time to reflect.
On Sunday, Tom took to Instagram to share a carousel of sweet photographs of his family, starting with a recent snap of him and his dad.
The caption began: “On this Father’s Day, all I can think of is how grateful I am to have been raised by the world’s best Dad, and to now have three beautiful angels of my own who I have the joy of watching grow up.”
After this, the NFL legend went on to discuss his relationship with his three children and hinted at the ways he hopes to improve as a father to Benjamin, 13, and Vivian, 10, who he shares with Gisele, and Jack, his 15-year-old son with Bridget Moynahan.
“Being a Dad is the best thing in my life. I have learned so much about what it takes from my Dad and to be able to pass that on to Jack, Benny and Vivi means the world to me,” he wrote. “Their love for others and constant selflessness makes me so proud to be their dad, and I know those traits come directly from everyone who is part of their life.”
He added: “They have taught me how to be present (still working on this daily 🤣) and cherish every moment (mostly😂) that we have as a family, because that’s what matters most.”
While it seemed Tom was making a lighthearted quip at his own expense, the football star’s lack of presence was an issue between him and Gisele for years leading up to their divorce — and is widely rumored to be one of the core reasons for their split.
Over a month before their divorce was made official in October last year, reports began surfacing that Tom’s decision to return to the NFL for a 23rd season — a mere 40 days after announcing his first retirement — had caused “a lot of tension” in their marriage.
For years prior to this, Gisele made no secret of the fact that she was excited for Tom to step back from his football career in pursuit of a more “present” role in their children’s lives.
“When I met him in 2006, he said, ‘Listen, I’m just gonna play for 10 more years, and I’m gonna win one Super Bowl, and I’m gonna be happy,’” Gisele said in the 2018 documentary series Tom Vs. Time. “Now you won two Super Bowls, it’s the end of the tenth year … and I was like ‘Yoo-hoo, let’s go!’ ... But then he’s like, ‘No.’”
“Football, as far as I’m concerned, is his first love. And I think it’s his main love, quite frankly,” she added.
Gisele addressed her husband’s undying dedication to football again in May 2022, telling Vogue: “I don’t think relationships just happen; it’s never the fairy tale people want to believe it is. ... His focus is on his career, mine is mostly on the kids.”
The supermodel commented more directly on his “unretirement” a few months later during an interview with Elle magazine, in which she said, “This is a very violent sport, and I have my children and I would like him to be more present.”
But despite all this, Gisele has since made it clear that her split from Tom wasn’t caused solely by the demands of his career, but rather a number of factors.
“Listen, I have always cheered for him, and I would continue forever,” she told Vanity Fair in March this year. “If there’s one person I want to be the happiest in the world, it’s him, believe me.”
“Sometimes you grow together; sometimes you grow apart,” she said. “When I was 26 years old and he was 29 years old, we met, we wanted a family, we wanted things together. As time goes by, we realize that we just wanted different things, and now we have a choice to make.”
She continued, “When you love someone, you don’t put them in a jail and say, ‘You have to live this life.’ You set them free to be who they are, and if you want to fly the same direction, then that’s amazing.”
Tom retired from the NFL “for good” in February this year, and since then, he’s been adjusting to life away from the football field.
