Inside Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's Relationship Timeline

It's over for Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen. After months of speculation, the NFL star and supermodel confirmed their divorce on social media. "We arrived at this decision amicably and with gratitude for the time we spent together," Brady wrote in an Instagram Story. "We are blessed with beautiful and wonderful children who will continue to be the center of our world in every way." On her own profile, Bündchen added: "We will continue co-parenting to give them the love, care and attention they greatly deserve."

Their separation marks the culmination of their 13-year marriage. Here, we look back on Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's relationship timeline.

They Met on a Blind Date

Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen met back in 2006 on a blind date, and Bundchen has said in multiple interviews before that for her, it was love at first sight. "I knew right away," the Brazilian supermodel told Vanity Fair. "We met through a friend. The moment I saw him, he smiled and I was like, 'That is the most beautiful, charismatic smile I've ever seen!'"

The pair was originally meant to just meet up for drinks (at Turks & Frogs, a low-key wine bar in NYC's West Village), but ended up chatting for three hours. "I had to go home for Christmas, but I didn't want to leave," Bundchen told the magazine. "You know that feeling of, like, you can't get enough? From the first day we met, we've never spent one day without speaking to each other."

They Had a One-Month Engagement

Following their blind date, the couple embarked on a three-year relationship. Brady proposed in January 2009, and they got married a month later in two different ceremonies: one at a church in Santa Monica, California, and the other at their home in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. Brady told GQ magazine at the time that their Santa Monica wedding took just 10 days to plan "and it was perfect."

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Bündchen detailed their Costa Rica destination wedding in her memoir, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life. "I wore a simple white slip dress. My feet were bare," she wrote. "The ceremony was brief, and the last words anyone heard were: For the pillars of the temple stand apart / And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

They Welcomed Two Kids Together

While Brady previously welcomed son John with actress Bridget Moynihan in 2007, he went on to have two more children with Bündchen. Their son Benjamin was born in December 2009, and their daughter Vivian was born in December 2012. Bündchen also took an active role as John's stepmother.

They Were Open About Their Marital Struggles

Throughout Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's 13-year marriage, they didn't shy away from talking about the struggles they endured. In April 2020, the athlete sat down with Howard Stern as his relationship with Gisele became the topic of choice in the interview. The dad of three got candid about a rough patch he and his wife confronted in 2018, and how they navigated out of it together. It started with a note that Bundchen left Brady. "A couple years ago, she didn't feel I was doing my part for the family," Brady told the XM Sirius talk show host. "She felt like I would play football all season and she would take care of the house and then all of a sudden, when the season would end, I'd be like, 'Great, let me get into all my other business activities. Let me get into my football training.' And she's sitting there going, 'Well, when are you going to do things for the house? When are you going to take the kids to school?'"

The athlete recognized that Bündchen, 42, had a very valid point: he had been focusing too much on his own career and not enough on their joint roles as parents to their kids. "She wasn't satisfied with our marriage, and I needed to make a change in that," he said. "Her point was, 'Of course this works for you … but it doesn't work for me.' I had to check myself. Because she was like, 'I have my goals and dreams, too.'"

The pair ended up going through marriage counseling together to work through their issues. Brady, 45, told Stern that he's kept Bündchen's note with him as a reminder of that time so he can continue to better himself and remember to shift his focus away from football from time to time. He later reflected on the experience in a feature with The Players' Tribune: "For as long as I can remember, my career, and football in general, has been an extremely important and gratifying part of my life," he wrote. "But just as important, and oftentimes more gratifying, are the times I spend with my wife and children, and the joy I feel watching my kids get older. In my case this means always checking in with myself and with them to make sure my priorities are in the right place — and if they're not, making adjustments."

They Addressed Divorce Rumors After Months of Speculation

Rumors of Tom and Gisele's divorce began swirling in late 2022. In February, Brady announced his retirement from the NFL after 22 seasons—but he "un-retired" 40 days later. Amid reports that Bündchen was unhappy with the decision, she broke her silence in a September 2022 interview with ELLE Magazine. "I've done my part, which is [to] be there for [Tom]," she told the publication. "I moved to Boston, and I focused on creating a cocoon and a loving environment for my children to grow up in and to be there supporting him and his dreams. Seeing my children succeed and become the beautiful little humans that they are, seeing him succeed, and being fulfilled in his career—it makes me happy. At this point in my life, I feel like I've done a good job on that."

She added, "I have a huge list of things that I have to do, that I want to do. At 42, I feel more connected with my purpose…I feel very fulfilled in that way—as a mother and as a wife. And now it's going to be my turn. It's not like I'm going to be in the valley forever."

Bündchen was the first to hire a divorce lawyer earlier this fall, and Brady followed suit shortly after. He later made headlines for taking 11 days out of the Buccaneers' pre-season practice schedule to deal with personal matters. Per People, the couple's "amicable" split, which includes joint custody of their kids, is already finalized. "The settlement is all worked out," a source told the outlet. "They've been working on the terms this whole time."