A new biography of Tom Brady says the seven-time Super Bowl champion took time away from Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp in the summer of 2022 to try to save his marriage to Gisele Bündchen in the Bahamas. The book, “Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness,” by Lars Anderson, was published by Celadon Books and came out Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026.
Anderson draws on conversations with Brady’s coaches and others in his circle. According to the book, the retreat was described as a “final, desperate attempt” to keep the family together, and it failed. Brady, 49, and Bündchen, 46, ended their 13-year marriage in October 2022. They share two children, Benjamin and Vivian, and Brady also has a son, Jack, 19, with former girlfriend Bridget Moynahan.
Why the Marriage Fell Apart, Per the Book
Anderson quotes one unnamed source who says Bündchen, a believer in astrology, checked the couple’s compatibility, decided they were not a match and was done. The same source offers other possible triggers: she felt she never came first, he kept playing after she asked him to stop, or a spiritual adviser pushed her to leave. Whatever the cause, the source says, it was far from a routine marital split.
Neither Brady nor Bündchen took part in the book, according to reports on it, and the claims rest on the accounts Anderson gathered.
A Shaken Quarterback at Camp
Brady, then the Buccaneers’ quarterback, was gone from camp for about 11 days, and the team called it a personal matter. Quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen told Anderson that Brady came back “an empty shell of who he was,” and also recalled his “lifeless stare,” wondering aloud whether he was in some form of psychological shock.
Brady returned nearly 20 pounds lighter, and people around the team feared he was ill. Former head coach Bruce Arians told the author the cause was plain. “It was very clear that the reason for the weight loss was the stress from personal issues he was dealing with.” Arians also described him as someone who “looked like a cancer patient with really good hair.”
The book sets that stretch against Feb. 7, 2021, when the two celebrated together at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., after the Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV.
The Social Media Posts
Bündchen had her first child with Joaquim Valente, a son, in February 2025. Anderson reports that Brady, now a Fox Sports analyst, was stung by how soon she had moved on. Less than a day after the birth, Brady shared a passage on social media about love, saying the way to be loved is to love, the way to be interesting is to be interested and the way to have a friend is to be one. Several people close to him, the book says, saw it as a veiled comment on the end of his marriage.
A little over a month later he posted a sunset photo of a football leaving his hand, captioned “True Love,” which Bündchen had often used to describe his bond with the sport. Per the book, the post read as pointed to those who knew him, and a friend called it “the softest middle finger.”
Bündchen on Her Own Wellness
Bündchen has talked openly about her health since the split. In a March 2024 interview, she described anxiety and panic attacks during her modeling years and giving up alcohol. On the Rich Roll Podcast on March 25, 2024, she discussed her career, environmental work and parenting.
