Tom Brady's Messiest Career Scandal Damaged His Relationship With Ex-Wife Gisele Bündchen

Tom Brady certainly has not left the football world behind since announcing his retirement from the NFL in 2023. The GOAT has been in the broadcast booth as Fox's lead color commentator alongside play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt, while also serving as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. It's a relatively drama-free status quo compared to his long and decorated career on the field. He may have won seven Super Bowls and rewrote the record book, but his quarterbacking days weren't without controversy or questionable decisions. And, in one notorious chapter, the gridiron strife led to some unsportsmanlike conduct in his marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen.

Brady and Bündchen met back in 2006, walked down the aisle in 2009, welcomed a son and a daughter, and lived an insanely glamorous life. But they ultimately divorced in 2022. Right in the middle of their time together, Brady endured one of the most notorious incidents of his career. Known as "Deflategate," it all went down during the AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts in January 2015, which the Patriots won 45-7 before going on to defeat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Brady was eventually suspended for four games for his part in the scandal, while the Patriots were fined $1 million. But the situation off the field was reportedly even messier.

According to Radar Online, Tom Brady's football struggles bled into his family life, which forced his then-wife Gisele Bündchen to take drastic action. The two ended up in couples therapy with a big point of contention being how he treated their children after a long day of work. As an insider spilled to Radar, "When Tom's had a busy day of training, he'll come home and pass out on the couch. There's a lack of effort, for sure, but what annoys Gisele more is when Tom yells at the kids for behaving badly during the time he does spend with them. She feels he should be more patient."

It wasn't as if Deflategate was the source of all their problems, but it was reportedly the turning point that made Bündchen take action. Brady eventually agreed to therapy despite his initial reluctance, but it sounds like the sessions worked out surprisingly in his favor. As another of Radar's sources explained, "The truth is, his career was on the line, and his wife was sneaking around Paris in a burqa getting plastic surgery. The therapist noted that both of them tend to put Gisele's needs over his."

Following Deflategate and the therapy sessions, Brady's football career got back on track, with three more Super Bowl wins in the years to come, bringing his career total to seven. But he and Bündchen never overcame their issues enough to stick it out for the long term. Since their divorce, Brady has been romantically linked to model Irina Shayk, although that relationship eventually ran its course. As for Bündchen, since 2023, she has been dating jiu-jitsu instructor Joaquim Valente, with whom she welcomed a son in 2025 — a development that had a lot of observers saying the same thing.