How Tom Brady Balances Fatherhood With Football

Tom Brady gushed over his wife, Gisele Bundchen, holding ‘down the house’ while he works — read more for details

Working dad! Tom Brady spoke candidly about the highs and lows of raising three children as a professional athlete.

“My wife has held down the house for a long time now,” the NFL player, 44, said during the Tuesday, October 26, episode of his SiriusXM “Let’s Go!” podcast of Gisele Bündchen. “I think there are things that she wants to accomplish. She hasn’t worked much in the last 10, 12 years while raising our family and committing to a life in Boston and then moving to Florida [when I signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers]. That’s an issue.”

The California native, who shares Jack, 14, with ex Bridget Moynahan and Benjamin, 11, and Vivian, 8, with Bündchen, 41, called this reality a “difficult [one] to reconcile.” He explained, “I don’t want to miss any of the kids’ stuff. …It’s a little teeter-totter from time to time, and I’m trying, like all of us, to do the best we can do based on the circumstances.”

The seven-time Super Bowl winner clarified that he does get more time off than the average parent, saying, “There are a lot of parents who get two or three weeks off a year and they work real jobs and real lives. I get a lot of time off actually. Football players, we get a good, healthy off-season. I try to do my best with the kids. I wish I was there more, but I think if I was there too much, they might be sick and tired of me screwing everything up that’s been going on in the house for a long time.”

Brady’s wife has previously been open about her own struggles to balance parenting with her modeling career.

“When I became a mom, I kind of lost myself. It was like a part of me died,” the Brazil native wrote in her October 2018 book, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life. “Now I had this little being, and I suddenly felt l couldn’t do other things and that was very hard for me.”

She and the quarterback began dating in 2006, shortly before the former New England Patriots player found out that his ex Moynahan, 50, was pregnant with their first child.

“I felt my world had been turned upside down,” Bündchen recalled in her memoir, noting that the situation “brought about so much growth.” She added that her “bonus child,” Jack, inspired her to have kids with her husband “sooner rather than later.”

The former Victoria’s Secret Angel and Brady went on to wed in February 2009 in California, one month after their engagement. The pair welcomed Benjamin and Vivian in December 2009 and December 2012, respectively.