Learning from the best! Gisele Bündchen wants to follow in Bridget Moynahan‘s footsteps when it comes to coparenting with their mutual ex, Tom Brady.
“I say to Bridget — you know, I have a great relationship with her,” the supermodel, 42, told Vanity Fair in her April 2023 cover story, which was published online on Wednesday, March 22. “Everything in life comes with work. You have to go through the roller coaster. You have moments where you get to the sticky points and you’ve gotta overcome it.”
The Brazil native went on to admit that she didn’t always have an easy dynamic with Moynahan, 51, who shares son Jack, 15, with the retired quarterback, 45. The Sex and the City alum and Brady called it quits in December 2006, two months before Moynahan confirmed her pregnancy. The twosome have been cordially raising Jack since his April 2007 arrival.
Bündchen exchanged vows with Brady two years later. “Love conquers all,” she told the outlet of her experience as Jack’s stepmom. “My life became so much richer because I got to learn so much from that. … Nothing is worth fighting [over].”
As the women grew closer, the activist focused on creating a positive environment for everyone involved in their unique dynamic. “My goal was always, ‘How can I be the most helpful? How can I make it the easiest I possibly can?'” she recalled. “I put myself in [Bridget’s] shoes and I was like, ‘How can I support her?’ Because in the end of the day, we are team players in, ‘How are we going to do this so [Jack] can have the best life?'”
When it comes to her own coparenting strategy with the former New England Patriots player — the pair share son Benjamin, 13, and daughter Vivian, 10 — Bündchen emphasized that she and Brady are still “a team” despite their split. (The former spouses finalized their divorce in October 2022 after months of marriage woes.)
Bündchen has a healthy relationship with her stepson, and the pair have even bonded over a shared interest in jujitsu. “I love him so much. … Jack loves [martial arts] too, but he doesn’t do it as much because he’s not with us as much,” she explained.
Before she and the seven-time Super Bowl champ called it quits, Bündchen was candid about the duo’s blended family. In her 2018 memoir, the former Victoria’s Secret Angel reflected on the moment she found out about Brady’s eldest son.
“I felt my world had been turned upside down,” she wrote in Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life, noting that Moynahan’s pregnancy “wasn’t an easy time” for her.
While the transition was challenging, Bündchen said Jack’s birth “brought about so much growth” for both her and Brady. “[He made] my heart expand in ways I didn’t know was possible,” she gushed of her “bonus child.”
The Coyote Ugly actress, for her part, previously stated that there was more than enough love to go around after Brady moved on. “My son has two loving parents and an extended family, whether it’s cousins or stepmothers or boyfriends,” she told More magazine in 2011. “My son is surrounded by love.”
