Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen have apparently taken a massive step toward divorce according to a Page Six report.
Here we go again: the marriage and private lives of public figures, Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen, are once again under the microscope. This time it seems as though the dirt that many were rubbernecking to see over the summer has finally been unearthed.
According to Page Six and based on information from an unnamed source “close to the family”, Brady and Gisele have hired divorce lawyers.
This comes after a summer of rumors regarding the status of Brady and Gisele’s marriage, something sparked by Brady reneging on his decision to retire from the NFL. That unfortunately has been the narrative surrounding the rumors of marital discord between the two, even though such an easy simplification is irresponsible among many other things (not the least of which is the sexist slant the story has taken regarding public blame being placed squarely on Gisele).
“I never actually thought this argument would be the end of them, but it looks like it is,” one source in the know tells Page Six.
“I don’t think there will be any coming back now. They both have lawyers and are looking at what a split will entail, who gets what and what the finances will be.”
Neither Brady nor Gisele have commented on the story.
This is a sports story insofar as Brady is perhaps the greatest quarterback to ever play in the NFL and is currently playing what appears to be the final season of his 22-year career. But it’s also a story about human beings, even if they happen to be two of the most famous people on the planet.
It’s deeply unfair to see this story as being one in which an aggrieved Gisele decided to divorce her husband for choosing to return to football rather than retire and spend time with his family. The entire narrative around the rumors has been white knuckled driven by that oversimplification, which is likely only a piece of a larger story not to mention incredibly dangerous. Football is already a sport where women are treated like second-class citizens on a good day, and to have a story about one of the most famous players in the game getting divorced by his angry wife who can’t deal with him playing ball for one more season is hot garbage, It’s also, unfortunately, incredibly on point for how these stories are typically slanted in the public eye.
Brady and Gisele are public figures, and discourse about their personal lives was always going to happen. But let’s just call this what it is: a private matter involving extremely public figures in which those spectating do not have enough information or insight to have an opinion on the matter.
The discourse around the matter has been nothing short of disappointing, if not at all surprising.