Gisele shows her softer side in cover story
I saw Gisele Bundchen for the first time in 2007 outside the Patriots locker room after a game in San Diego. As reporters lined up for access to the players for post game reaction, I heard one writer say, “There she is…Gisele.”
Glancing to my left, what I saw was a very normal looking woman, wearing blue jeans and no make up. I thought to myself, “no way.” How could this be the world’s most famous model? That’s the Victoria’s Secret girl? She stood alone, no entourage, no body guards. Giselle waited patiently for Tom Brady to emerge from the locker room. Reporters noticed them chatting before Brady boarded the team bus. They waved good-bye, and the rest is history.
For someone worth 300 million dollars, Gisele has managed to keep a low profile as Mrs. Brady. We sometimes see a photo snapped of the couple with their children. Vivian, and Benjamin are Gisele’s children with Brady. Jack’s mom is actress Bridget Moynhan, and Gisele loves him as her own.
Gisele made some noise as a football wife a few years ago when she stood up to a heckler after the Super Bowl in 2012, You remember, the game when the key pass down the stretch went off Wes Welker’s‘s finger tips. After a Giant’s fan taunted her about Brady’s incompletion, Gisele shot back, “He can’t throw it and catch it!”
The comment caused a firestorm of reaction pro and con. I loved it. It showed devotion, spirit and for lack of a better word, balls. No wonder she’s such a great businesswoman. Gisele didn’t get to be one of the world’s wealthiest women by chance. She’s as tough as any football player I’ve met, and I am sure her husband would agree.
Gisele Bunchden is on the debut cover Porter Magazine The Spring 2014 Issue is “A Celebration of Incredible Women.” Gisele lets us into her “private world” in the fourteen page spread. At age 33, she continues to wear lingerie like no other, and the photos are needless to say, are amazing.
What interested me was the actual story that went with the photos. It’s unusual to hear Gisele open up about her private life. I learned her work ethic came from her mother who worked as a bank cashier while raising Gisele and her five sisters.
“She’d wake up at 6am to make sure we were taken care of,” Gisele said. ” At the weekends, she woke up at 5 or 6am. She would spend Saturday washing clothes. I think of her and it gives me strength.”
Washing clothes for 6 girls? Gisele’s mom deserves a medal of honor.
When speaking of Brady, Gisele says she is “lucky to be married to my best friend.” ” I am so happy for him, and he so happy for [my success],” she says. It’s really about that partnership, that trust. I think that’s what makes our relationship strong, that trust.”
My favorite part of the article was to learn that Gisele a “girl’s girl.”
“I am huge admirer of women, especially these days when women are expected to be everything, and do everything. I like to call them “warriors of love.”
Now that’s cool. Who wouldn’t want to be a warrior of love?
Of course, Gisele doesn’t face the same every day battles of many moms. Going to the office every day, commuting, shopping, paying the bills, doing the laundry, cooking dinner, and shlepping the kids to practice and games, is very hard work. It helps to have help.
It was refreshing to learn that the world’s most famously photographed woman was humbled the day she became a mother. Like the rest of us, she learned in one beautiful moment how incredibly important her new job was.
” When Benny was born I realized that somebody needed me more than anyone ever had. And my life suddenly became about two lives instead of one. And when Vivi was born we became three. I admire my mother for raising six girls and always working. Being a career woman and a mother is a constant balancing act, but I think of my mother and is shows me I can always work harder. I can always do more.”
(Can’t tell you how many times I have heard Brady say the same thing about football)
And where does the strength come from?
“From accepting yourself, loving yourself, understanding yourself,” Gisele says. ” I wish for all women to realize how special and unique they are. That’s what I want for my daughter, that’s what I want for my kids, that’s what I want for myself.”
I like what Gisele had to say in this article. So go buy a copy of “Porter.” You have to see the pictures.
