Tom Brady opens up about difficult final NFL season in surprising comments about Gisele Bündchen divorce

Tom Brady made a rare reference to his 2022 divorce from ex-wife, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, that dominated headlines during his final NFL season.

During a Thursday appearance on “The Herd,” the former quarterback, who retired in February 2023 after 23 seasons in the NFL, explained that the public divorce affected his ability to play for the Buccaneers that campaign — when they finished 8-9, marking his first losing season ever.

“My last season was tough,” Brady, 48, told host Colin Cowherd. “I was going through, I had a lot of, you know, just a personal family issue. And it was a challenge and it was very … It just took a lot out of me in terms of my ability to play.”

“I had 23 years of [football] so I didn’t think I was missing anything, retiring. I felt like this is time. I always had a goal — 45. I was 45 years old, I wanted to spend time with my kids, I felt like, okay, now it’s time for me to be at all my kids’ games. They’ve been to enough of their dad’s games.”

The Fox Sports analyst and Bündchen were together for 13 years before they finalized their divorce in October 2022.

They co-parent their two kids Benjamin, 15, and Vivian, 12, and Brady has a son, Jack, 17, from his previous relationship with actress Bridget Moynahan.

Brady discussed his personal life after Cowherd asked how he reached his decision to retire, and referenced the social media video he shared explaining his decision while sitting alone on a beach.

“I understood in my last year that I tried to put as much as I could into it,” Brady said. “I felt like I owed to my teammates and coaches to give them everything I had. I wish it could have been a little bit better at the end. But it was just a unique situation and a unique year for me.”

Bündchen reportedly tied the knot with her Jiu Jitsu instructor boyfriend Joaquim Valente in an intimate ceremony in Surfside, Fla., last December.

The couple welcomed their first child together last February.

The future Hall of Famer famously ended his 40-day retirement to play for the Buccaneers for “unfinished business” in March 2022 — one season after he won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in February 2021, when they defeated the Chiefs, 31-9, in Super Bowl LV.

Cowherd asked Brady about his final NFL season while they were discussing Aaron Rodgers, who potentially played his final game as a Steeler in a 30-6 wild-card loss to the Texans on Monday night.

Rodgers signed a one-year deal with Pittsburgh last June, and made it clear that he wanted to play for head coach Mike Tomlin — who stepped down Tuesday after 19 years at the helm.