One of six! Gisele Bündchen grew up with five sisters, including her fraternal twin, Patricia Bündchen.
“When I was growing up in Horizontina, [Brazil], there were six of us girls at the dinner table, six voices rising up to talk or laugh or disagree at once,” the model wrote in her 2018 memoir, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life. “One day my dad made a rule: if one of us had something to say, we needed to raise our hand.”
Elsewhere in the book, the Brazil native noted that she had “the best childhood in the world.” Gisele has often praised her parents — dad Valdir Bündchen and mom Vânia Nonnenmacher — for raising her and her sisters with love.
“Happy birthday to our Wonder Woman! Mommy, I cannot imagine all the work and dedication to raising us 6!” she captioned a July 2019 Instagram photo of herself, Vânia and her five sisters — Patricia, Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela and Rafaela. “Eternally grateful for everything you have done and continue to do for us. Thank you for always loving and inspiring us. I love you soooo much!”
The businesswoman also showed her father some love for his birthday in May 2020.
“Thank you for being an example of integrity, reliability, love, courage and commitment,” she captioned a throwback photo of her father walking her down the aisle when she married ex-husband Tom Brady in 2009. “Thank you for being our counselor, for leading the way, for always helping and encouraging all of us to make a difference. Thank you for being the best father in the world!”
Despite always speaking highly of her family, Gisele previously opened up about an incident where she lost her temper with her twin and said things she later regretted.
“I kept thinking what an idiot I was. I love all my sisters. Why had I been so mean? My justification — But Pati was mean to me first! She started it! — suddenly seemed lame,” she recalled in her memoir. “There were so many other, better ways I could have dealt with the situation, like saying, ‘I’m sorry you feel that way about me’, or ‘Why don’t we speak again tomorrow?’ I didn’t need to slam my sister, but I had, and I spent the next day or two incredibly upset.”
The twins made a rare red carpet appearance together in May 2023 at the Luz Alliance Gala in Miami, helping to raise nearly $1 million for the Brazil foundation to benefit restoration efforts in their home country.
Patricia is primarily based in Brazil with her husband and two children, where she works as Gisele’s manager. Us Weekly confirmed in October 2022 that Gisele had begun living in Miami amid her divorce from Brady. The exes — who share son Benjamin, born in 2009, and daughter Vivian, born in 2012 — previously moved from Massachusetts to Tampa, Florida, together in 2020.
Keep scrolling for a guide to Bündchen’s big family:
