This story contains discussion of suicide.
CONTENT WARNING
Gisele Bündchen was the highest paid model on Earth as a Victoria’s Secret angel, but it came with a price. She was making tons of money from fashion shows, but when her contract ended in 2006, she said “I felt less and less at ease being photographed walking the runway wearing just a bikini or thong.”
The overexertion from her job took a toll on Bündchen. In her book, she revealed her experience with panic attacks that made her consider suicide: “I had been smoking cigarettes, drinking a bottle of wine and three mocha Frappuccinos everyday, and I gave up everything in one day. I thought, if this stuff is in any way the cause of this pain in my life, it's gotta go."
Bündchen retired from the runway in 2015 and moved on from modeling to humanitarian and environmental work. She comes from a small village in the south of Brazil where the quality of water was very poor, so she worked with her father, a sociologist, to fund a project to guarantee clean water.